Introduction to Contemporary European Cinema

2020

European Cinema in the Twenty-First Century "Two decades into the twenty-first century, it is time to take a look at the recent cinema of Europe, and bring it into the curriculum. And this is what the book does: it presents and analyses the cinema of the new Europe, from riveting migrant documentaries set in the Mediterranean (Francesco Rossi's Fire at Sea) to contemplative woman's cinema from small peripheral countries (Athina Rachel Tsangari's Attenberg). A true constellation of riveting topics and essays written by authors who represent Europe's true diversity: East and West, North and South

Lähikuva – audiovisuaalisen kulttuurin tieteellinen julkaisu

European countries that has made them invisible or critically neglected for a long time. This approach, however, seems to foreclose too quickly the possibility of a European cinema not necessarily defined by a framework of 6 Ldhikuva .4/1998

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 2015

Deadline for abstracts: December 30, 2016 Twenty-first century quality European feature film has added social and political weight to its aesthetic project and has increasingly framed its questions in a European context. This phenomenon is especially visible among young European filmmakers. Quality cinematic production has emphasized the demand for an active understanding of European identity and for the defense of Project Europe's quest for democracy and cosmopolitanism. European cinema theaters, film festivals and quality television programming have more and more turned into sites of civic concern and cultural resistance. The consumption of these films has stimulated sensitivity to a variety of challenges that face the continent— including the hegemony of economic neoliberalism and the disintegration the European Union as a structure of transnational governance. This Special Issue invites contributors to reflect on how recent quality cinema aims to address a variety of European challenges such as: 1. the responsibilities of European citizenship in the twenty-first century globalized world 2. the reassertion of Europe as a transformative political project that can react to new forms of human disenfranchisement and exploitation 3. particular issues that face the unity, security, well-being, and happiness of all Europeans, such as: ○ containing the rise of present nationalist populism ○ evening out economic discrepancies ○ democratic access to education and information ○ fighting the marketization of social life ○ inspiring cosmopolitan self-perception ○ presenting a comprehensive picture of global migration in the postcolonial context ○ high-level corruption ○ understanding the causes of terrorism ○ participating in offshore and proxy wars ○ raising awareness of ecological catastrophe ○ dismantling gender inequality

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2015

European Film and Media Studies is a series dedicated to historical and contemporary studies of film and media in a European context and to the study of the role of film and media in European societies and cultures. Books in the series deal with media content and media genres, with national and transnational aspects of film and media policy, with the sociology of media as institutions and with the impact of film and media on everyday life, culture and society. In an era of increased European integration and globalization there is a need to move away from the single nation study focus and the single discipline study of Europe. The series accordingly takes a comparative, European perspective based in interdisciplinary research that moves beyond a traditional nation state perspective.

Cinema Beyond the City, 2017

Beyond the City is the first book to look at the dynamics and diversity of film culture in small-town and rural Europe. Since the early days of Lumière's cinematograph, film exhibitors have brought moving pictures to towns, villages and farming communities in the countryside. Across Europe, these consumers constitute a considerable percentage of cinema's potential audience, today as well as in the past. Yet we know remarkably little about their experience of the film medium. In the historiography as well as in the public mind, the cinema is equated with urban modernity and typically conceived as a quintessential metropolitan medium: an entertainment product of the big city and for the big city. The emphasis on 'cinema and the city' in film scholarship is understandable. The medium has its roots in the metropolitan mass culture of the late nineteenth century, and many later innovations in film production, distribution and exhibition carne from major urban centres like Paris, Londen, Berlin, New York and Los Angeles. At the same time, this monolithic focus has not only obscured the history of moviegoing in the hinterlands, but also moulded our understanding of cinema's relation to modern life. 1 A 'crude city-rural dichotomy' structures much of the industry and academie discourse on non-urban film culture, whereby the country is usually represented as 'backward and disconnected from the current trends', Karina Aveyard observes. 2 Explicitly or implicitly the metropolitan experience of the cinema is aften (not always) taken as the norm. Hence, as Robert C. Allen points out, 'it has been diffi.cult to see regional or demographic differences as anything other than aberrations or the result of a lag in the pace of modernization'. 3 A few years after its invention, the cinema itself had already set the tone. In The Countryman and the Cinematograph (1901), a short movie directed by the British filmmaker Robert William Paul, the main character is portrayed as the archetypal rube who does not understand the modern world. Even the most uneducated urban spectators of Paul' s film were invited to laugh at his behaviour which implies a misconception of what the cinema is about. The catalogue describes the countryman as 'a yokel in the audience' who becomes overexcited by what he sees on the screen. He climbs upon the stage to try to dance with the ballerina in the film, runs off into the wings when he sees an express train and, in the final scene, in which he makes love to a dairy maid, 'becomes so enraged that he tears down the screen, disclosing the projector and the operator, whom he severely handles'. 4 The Countryman and the Cinematograph and Edison's remake Uncle Josh at the Picture Show (1902) are usually interpreted as humorous exaggerations of how early audiences reacted to the novelty of the movies. Yet these short comedies also suggest an essential difference between the urban and the rural lntroduction: A New Approach to European Cinema History

Class syllabus, 2025

This course presents the most exceptional and inventive films from Central European nations, set against the backdrop of European history from 1945 to the present. The class examines the following subjects: sports drama and political farce comedy as expressions of national unity; nostalgia towards times of cultural change and opportunity; the feminist themes in the European film; as well as the lure of surrealism and the influence of music on shaping the viewer's perception of the story. The approach to analyzing the selected films is grounded in modern viewpoints from the humanities, encompassing cinema theory, gender studies, postcolonial theory, and psychoanalytic cultural theory. Special emphasis is placed on Slovenian star philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who examines the significance of art in transforming an individual’s life; a US philosopher of Indian origin Gayatri Spivak, who advocates for voicing the perspectives of marginalized groups who cannot get access to media; and the dissident author Vaclav Havel, who fostered organized civic collaboration against an oppressive regime and became the inaugural President of Czechoslovakia in a postcolonial free state. The historical context encompasses the Soviet domination in Central Europe from 1945 to 1991, the Soviet incursion into Prague in 1968, the occupation and imposition of martial law in Poland from 1980 to 1982, the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Yugoslav conflict in the 1990s, and current political dynamics that played out in Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2014.

This book offers comparative studies of the production, content, distribution and reception of film and television drama in Europe. The collection brings together scholars from the humanities and social sciences to focus on how new developments are shaped by national and European policies and practices, and on the role of film and television in our everyday lives. The chapters explore main trends in transnational European film and television fiction, addressing issues of co-production and collaboration, and of how cultural products circulate across national borders. The chapters investigate how watching film and television from neighbouring countries can be regarded as a special kind of cultural encounter with the possibility of facilitating reflections on national differences within Europe and negotiations of what characterises a national or a European identity respectively.

European Journal of Communication, 2009