Since filmmakers have been making films they have often felt the need to document important aspects about the events of their lives. The reasons for this are numerous and varied this is especially true of autobiographical films. These films are often based around a collection of episodes that hold importance in an individual’s life. They include a combination of personal encounters that an individual has experienced at/or over a particular time and in a specific place. They may include individual people, events and objects that hold importance to the film maker that they feel the need to document. The following essay will examine the relationship between the subject and the importance of places in autobiographical films. The films that this essay will explore are My Winnipeg (d. Guy Maddin 2007) and Caro Diario (d. Nanni Moretti 1993) As the term autobiographical would suggest the subject of these films are in essence the self. These films include personal stories and are 1st person subjective narratives. As Brooks states “an autobiographical film occurs when a director represents themselves either directly or indirectly on screen” p In the case of My Winnipeg the central character of Maddin is played by an actor Darcy Fehr and it is a fictionalisation or self-projection of Maddin. The film is however narrated by Maddin. In Caro Diario the main protagonist is played by the film’s director Moretti. The subject of both of these films is to give the viewer a glimpse of the private world of the protagonist by also objectively recording the historical and cultural world they live in. This can bee seen in the documentary style of both of these films as Lane states ‘At the core of this exploration lies a tension that hinges on the ... ... middle of paper ... ... Everett, Wendy. (ed.). (1996). European Identity in Cinema Exeter: Intellect Books Lane, Jim (2002) The Autobiographical Documentary in America. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press McNeill, Isabelle.( 2010) Memory and the Moving Image: French Film in the Digital Era (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) Pike, Nora. (1996) ‘From lieux de mémoire to realms of memory’ in Nora, P. and L. D. Kritzman (eds) (1996) Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past. Vol. 1: conflicts and divisions. New York and Chichester: Columbia University Press. Rascaroli, Laura. (2004) Caro diario, in Bertellini, Giorgio (ed.) (2004) The Cinema of Italy. London: Wallflower Richardson, Michael. (2006) Surrealism and Cinema, London: Bloomsbury Academic Wilson, Emma. (1999) French cinema since 1950: Personal Histories, the University of Michigan : Duckworth
Greene, Naomi(1999) Landscapes of loss: The national Past of Postwar French cinema (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press)
Grainge, P., Jancovich, M., & Monteith, S. (2012). Film Histories; An introduction and reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
BIBLIOGRAPHY An Introduction to Film Studies Jill Nelmes (ed.) Routledge 1996 Anatomy of Film Bernard H. Dick St. Martins Press 1998 Key Concepts in Cinema Studies Susan Hayward Routledge 1996 Teach Yourself Film Studies Warren Buckland Hodder & Stoughton 1998 Interpreting the Moving Image Noel Carroll Cambridge University Press 1998 The Cinema Book Pam Cook (ed.) BFI 1985 FILMOGRAPHY All That Heaven Allows Dir. Douglas Sirk Universal 1955 Being There Dir. Hal Ashby 1979
Small, Pauline. (2005) New Cinemas: journal of Contemporary Film Volume 3, Queen Mary, University of London
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
Perf. Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Lowitsch, Ivan Desny, Gisela Uhlen. Albatros Film LTD, 1979. DVD. The. Rentschler, Eric. A. "From New German Cinema to the Post-Wall Cinema of Consensus.'
Gunning, Tom 2000, “The Cinema of Attraction: Early film, its spectator, and the avant-garde.” Film and theory: An anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller, Blackwell, pp 229-235.
Through most of the characters’ passion for filmmaking, this movie teaches the audience the great significance of film history. Many people in modern day tend to take film and its history for granted, but they do not realize the depth and effort that mankind has put into such a development. In Hugo, the theme of film history revolves around the entire production, and the audience sees flashbacks of Georges Méliès’ past that reveal his vital role in movie-making. By investing a deep meaning to the tale, viewers start to understand the great emotional and intellectual characteristics of movies. Additionally, Hugo himself delivers a message to his counterpart characters, which also serves as a lesson for the onlookers. He shows the audience that everyone has a part and purpose in this world. Protagonist Hugo Cabret says that “everything has a purpose, even machines. Clocks tell the time, trains take you places. They do what they’re meant to do.” Voicing through Hugo, the filmmakers illustrate how every individual has a reason to live and discover their calling. With a statement about the forgotten grandeur of film history and a valuable message to the crowd regarding one’s purpose, Hugo inspires and presents itself as a noteworthy and unforgettable
France during World War II was a dark place for a film industry that had once experienced such successes. As a result of Nazi Germany’s occupation, the selection of films available in France was severely limited. With Hollywood films strictly banned, theatres during the war mostly exhibited German imports and only a handful of domestically produced and heavily censored features. Immediately following WWII the French film industry was in ruins like the rest of the country’s industry.
Stangl , Oliver . "Direct Cinema and Cinéma Vérité – Guide to the Genres." The Documentary
Ruberto, L.E. and Wilson, K.M. (ed.) (2007), Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema, Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.
Martini, G. (2013) I Festival sono ancora necessari?, Spec. Issue of 8 ½- Numeri, visioni e prospettive del cinema italiano (2013).