ISSN 1717-9559
Keyword Category : Film Aesthetics and Film History
Andre Bazin Andrei Tarkovsky Black Cinema Cinefest Cinematheque Quebecois Cinematography Cuban Cinema Cult Cinema David Bordwell Feminism Film Canon Film History Film Painting Film Preservation Film Style Film Theory Found Footage Cinema Gay Lesbian German Expressionism Gerry Gianni Di Venanzo Gilles Deleuze Giorgio di Chirico Guiseppe Lanci Henri Bergson Independent Cinema Jackson Pollock Jacques Lacan Lech Majewski Leonard Maltin Modernism Montage Mother and Son Music Nazism Neo Realism Noel Carroll Painting Paul Schrader Pauline Kael Phil Serling Political Political Cinema Political Theory Psychoanalysis Repertory Revolutionary Cinema Sergei Eisenstein Socialist Realism Sound Surrealism Susan Sontag Sven Nykvist Temporality Tzvetan Todorov Walter Benjamin Wetfish William K Everson
1.
An analysis of masculinity in three key Jamaican films.
2.
An in-depth humanist analysis of Haaz Sleiman's The Visitor.
3.
A festival report on the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival. Films reviewed include Ara, Ex Drummer, and A Jihad for Love.
5.
A thematic and formal analysis of the environmental thread across a group of mainly low budget, independent horror films that showed at Fantasia 2007.
6.
A report of the 2008 Bradford International Film Festival.
7.
Relying on secondary sources and an in-depth formal analysis, author Richard Wallace takes a plunge into defining the ineffable: the Lubitsch Touch.
8.
An interview with Doug Harris, writer/director of the Canadian film Remembering Mel.
9.
The end of the world is hot on US screens of late, culminating in the intriguing technological experiment, Cloverfield.
10.
An interview with Philippe Spurrell, director of the Canadian supernatural mystery, The Descendant (2007).
11.
Festival report on the ever-growing (48th) Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
12.
An earnest, DIY account of a sighted creature in the New Orleans, Louisiana area.
13.
An interview with the indie masters of camp aesthetics and underground trash (in the best term), the Kuchar bros.
15.
An analysis of Terence Malick's phenomenological-influenced approach to cinematic objects, an approach which expands our conception of 'film realism' and certain formal codes of film language (like point of view).
16.
An analysis of Touch of Evil which argues that a formal analysis grounded in cognitivism is better suited than most (i.e. psychoanalytical) in taking into consideration issues of meaning (authorial intention, the collaborative nature of filmmaking) and the particularities of cinema's unique 'autographic' and 'discursive' language.
17.
While most reviewers of Abel Ferrara’s (arguably masterpiece) The Bad Lieutenant tended to laud Harvey Kietel’s performance in spite of his character’s morally reprehensible nature, and the film’s overall harsh subject matter, Jason Mark Scott argues that Ferrara’s stylistic mix of ‘naturalism’ (which is likened to Pier Paolo Pasolini) and lyricism amounts to a poignant treatment of Catholic angst.
18.
All too often film criticism takes itself too seriously. What if film criticism tried to be as entertaining as its product? Offscreen introduces 'Bran Stakhage's' new concept in film criticism: 'post-it' styled criticism which you could print out and stick on your kitchen fridge.
19.
Author Jenna Bond examines the homosexual subtext across three seminal Spaghetti westerns.
20.
A psychoanalytical analysis of the unique Greek cult film??Singapore Sling??, a postmodern melange of classic film noir tropes, melodrama, gothic horror, Expressionism, and exploitation cinema (extreme gore, explicit sex).
21.
A structural analysis of film noir openings. Part 2.
22.
A structural analysis of film noir openings. Part 1.
23.
For this final forum, I invited short contributions from practitioners of audiovisual art working outside of the realm of cinema proper to offer some thoughts on the current state of the art, and what the future might hold for artists interesting in achieving higher levels of integration between sound and image.
24.
In our final feature essay, Charles Stankievech keeps us firmly rooted within the realm of sound. Yet like the other essays in this issue, he too is interested in the blurring of a boundary line: that between the experiences of interiority and exteriority as mediated by headphone technologies.
25.
In the first essay of this issue to eschew considerations specific to audiovisual relationships, Jonathan Sterne nevertheless continues with the more general theme of blurred boundaries by considering the hybridization of media technologies and musical instruments that we have become so used to in today’s world of basement recording studios and stadium DJ concerts.
26.
This essay serves as the point of transition between the two general sections of this edition of Offscreen: Sound in the Cinema and Beyond.
27.
To complete the section of this issue dedicated to the cinema proper, we have a forum addressing an ongoing debate regarding the continuing relevance of the term diegesis and its attendant distinctions between diegetic and non-diegetic sound.
28.
In this essay, Brett Kashmere examines Ryan Tebo’s recent documentary Whoever Fights Monsters, a film which examines the nature of improvisational jazz through a unique approach to the filmmaking process itself.
29.
This piece centers upon a discussion with Hildegard Westerkamp about the use of her soundscape compositions in the films of Gus Van Sant.
30.
In this essay, Randall Barnes takes us deep into the concept of “designing a film for sound” using Barton Fink as a case study for examining the close working relationship between writer/directors Joel and Ethan Coen, sound designer Skip Lievsay, and composer Carter Burwell.
31.
This issue begins with a celebration of sound in film, bringing together ten short essays by a variety of film scholars detailing auditory moments from the history of cinema that they have found to be worthy of discussion.
32.
The explosion of academic interest in sound studies over the past decade has ensured that I can no longer begin a special sound-oriented issue of a journal such as this by declaring the topic a “neglected domain.” Serious inquiry dealing with sound from a wealth of disciplinary perspectives has definitively taken place. In many ways, being free of the cachet that comes with obscurity is very appealing; I no longer have to justify my interest in sound, and can now comfortably take it for granted that the auditory dimension is worthy of exploration in its own right.
34.
An genre analysis of Park Chan-Wook's particular brand of film thriller.
35.
In this survey some of Offscreen's regular contributors speak their mind on cinema of the last ten years. Offscreen would like to thank the valuable contribution of its many writers. To note the obvious, Offscreen would not be where it is today if not for them.
36.
Author Becky Korman compares and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses of a Nigerian (Ezra) and American (Blood Diamond) film based on a similar subject: the consequences of civil war on the people of Sierra Leone as a result of conflict surrounding the diamond trade.
37.
An interview with the director of Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako.
38.
Authour Jason Lindop offers a close analysis of director Sissako's symbolic treatment of the social and economic effects of globalization and Western intervention in Africa.
39.
Ryan Spence’s essay concentrates on Sissako’s formal interplay between varying forms of interogative discourse (trial process, question/answer, song) and narration, and how the differing power structures of communication in Africa and the West need to be addressed before the true collective voice of Africa can be heard and, in turn, true economic and social progress.
40.
An analysis of the film Thunderbolt, a representative of the hundreds of recent video works to be coming out of Nigeria in recent years (sometimes called Nollywood). Author Murphy places the film within the (hopefully) burgeoning desires and ambitions of this burgeoning commercial industry.
41.
Robert Robertson continues his research into previously untapped intellectual/philosophical strains in the work (film and theory) of Sergei Eisenstein, looking at parallels to the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
42.
Author Krystle Doromal compares the on/off-screen personas of two Asian American actresses from different eras, Ann May Wong and Lucy Lui. Doromal argues that, while being typecast, these two actresses have also challenged the sterotypical images of Asian Americans in their own different ways.
43.
A close textual analysis of Elie Suleiman’s Chronicle of a Disappearance which demonstrates how the director's understanding of form informs the complex political landscape of the everyday Palestinian experience.
44.
Author Guan-Soon wrestles through the virutes and ambiguities of Zhang Yimou’s Hero, a film which, according to Guan-Soon, negotiates between a Hollywood style blockbuster and a culturally savvy Chinese martial arts epic.
45.
An theoretical analysis of what makes the cult film fan tick, from a psychoanalytical standpoint.
46.
A book review essay of Mark Reid's expansive book on African American cinema, which dates back to the silent films of pioneering director/producer Oscar Micheaux to contemporary American cinema.
47.
A review essay of one of the most intriguing low budget American horror films ever made, taking into account production history and how director Herk Harvey uses the film's technical limitations to its benefit.
48.
A tribute to the Hammer great Freddie Francis, cinematographer par excellence and director of countless horror films, including the film given extensive analysis here, The Creeping Flesh.
49.
An historical contextualisation of Santiago Álvarez' bold political/experimental short films.
50.
An overview of Richard Kerr's multimedia installation, Industrie/Industry.
51.
A comparative analysis between the styles of Robert Bresson and Sergio Leone.
52.
An analysis of how cinematic 'space' can include geographical, physical properties of city landscapes, with a special emphasis on how Los Angeles informs the meaning of Fight Club and Collateral, and Athens in Delivery.
53.
Review essay of the book Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema which analyzes the varied complexities surrounding a 'national' cinema in search of Nationhood.
54.
An analysis of Eisenstein's most abstract montage type, 'intellectual montage.'
55.
A review of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain tracing the film's literary roots in Allegory, Romanticism and Epic poetry.
56.
An in-depth interview with one of the driving forces behind the promotion and critical appreciation of Asian cinema, Tony Rayns.
57.
A report on the 2006 installment of the Vancouver International Film Festival, sorting out what author Archibald feels is the ossification of a common arthouse aesthetic.
58.
An exploration of the wild and diverse world of internet cinema, including films made specifically for the internet and those which find a second home (and wind) on the WWW.
59.
An introspective analysis of what happens when aesthetization meets the politically volatile subject of global capitalism.
60.
An industry analysis using Almodovar's Live Flesh and Guy Ritchie's Snatch as case studies of the sort of narrative and stylistic markers used by European cinema to compete with American films in the global market.
61.
An overview of the best seen (and not seen) on Montreal theatre screens.
62.
Professor Paul Salmon reviews the Criterion Collection release of Powell and Pressburger's influential cinematic opera piece, The Tales of Hoffman.
63.
A reflection on the state of the film canon vis-a-vis film critic/filmmaker Paul Schrader.
64.
An interview with young filmmaker Julia Loktev on her controversial film about a female suicide bomber, Day Night Day Night.
65.
An essay on Hakan Sahin's first two features, Mirror and Snow, studies on the psychological effects of living in geographical isolation.
66.
A report on the 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, with a concentration on the International Competition.
67.
A broad survey of the trends and patterns of the American horror film since 1991, the year Silence of the Lambs won several Academy Awards.
68.
An interview with director, cast and select production people of the refreshingly original indie horror film, Shallow Ground.
69.
A look at how two recent documentaries on the slasher/stalker film signals a paradigm shift in the horror genre.
70.
An analysis of the representation of the disabled across the broad spectrum of fantastic cinemas.
71.
A report on the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, concentrating on the feature fiction films.
72.
A review essay of Dai Sijie's France-China production of Sijie's own novel, set during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Author Garrett analyzes (among other elements) how, during one of the darkest periods in China's cultural history, great art (much of it destroyed as part of the 're-education' program) survived through the perseverance of the human spirit.
73.
An in-depth book review essay of Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy, the fascinating first hand account about some of the more prominent members of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers, written by a professor from the Beijing Academy, Ni Zhen.
74.
A philosophical analysis of Catherine Breillat's controversial Anatomy of Hell.
75.
An in-depth analysis of the representation of women in contemporary Iranian cinema.
76.
This essay examines Mohsen Makhmalbaf's intertextual use of Rumi's famous poem The Three Fish in his early third phase film, Time of Love.
77.
