In 2008 the New South Wales Board of Studies included Hayao Miyazaki's film "Spirited Away" as the prescribed text for the Higher School Certificate Japanese Extension course. A study of the film in this context requires students to engage with the text in three distinct ways: through language, cultural symbolism and relevance, and…

Five Frameline short films by and about LGBT youth's coming-out narratives are reviewed by a professor and his (under)graduate university students studying visual culture and the socio/cinematic construction of (homo)sexualities. Respondents collectively found the group of films moving and well suited for viewing by middle- and high-school-age…

Investigates the rhetorical implications of Sydney Pollack's translation of Isak Dinesen's autobiographical texts. Argues that Pollack's film uses strategies of transference, redefinition, antithesis, and displacement to renarrate Dinesen's writings, resulting in a depoliticized romantic adventure. Finds that these strategies misrepresent Dinesen,…

States that Bill Nichols's notion of documentary modes helps to articulate some of the troubling aspects of "Roger and Me." Suggests that "Roger and Me" is part of a new ethos, derived from poststructuralist thought and postmodernist form that flouts "negative mastery" as a form of validity. Advances the opinion that…

States that humor is dependent on individual perspective, and that the subject matter of "Lolita" (1962), which concerns child abuse and molestation, is difficult to treat with humor. Argues that despite its subject, "Lolita" continues to be funny. Concludes that viewers know the subject matter is not funny, but while watching,…

Discusses the 1955 Vladimir Nabokov novel "Lolita," and the central theme of "Lolita" being a prize in a struggle between two men. Examines some of the moments of sadomasochism in the novel and film, and the relationship between director Stanley Kubrick and the lead actor Peter Sellers. Concludes with an analysis of Kubrick's…

Argues that the dominant themes in Bigelow's "Blue Steel" are female subservience, masculine authority, sex as economic exchange and guilty pleasure, woman as threatening and domestic, and castration anxiety. Analyzes Jamie Lee Curtis's portrayal of the protagonist, Megan Turner, as being androgynous when in uniform, and as possessor of…

Muses on the difference between film in the theater and on home video, using "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" as an example. Chronicles the complete viewing experience of this particular film at home. States that although home video supplies an excellent tool for "how-to" analysis, its interactivity cannot supply a valid theory of…

Analyzes Zalman King's 1990 film "Red Shoe Diaries." Argues that the conflicting interests of sexual desire in "Red Shoe Diaries" are indicative of the placement of female heterosexual desire within contemporary culture. Concludes that "Red Shoe Diaries" offers a narrative about the importance and construction of…

Postulates that, if genres serve as problem-solving constructs for the cultures they reflect and are fundamentally conservative structures committed to temporary resolutions of the hopeless contradictions that produce their dramas, then Brian DePalma's "Scarface" exemplifies the ways gangster films of the 1980s redefined generic…

Discusses how an assessment of "Le Livre de Marie" and "Je Vous Salue, Marie" risks reproducing the feminine/masculine dynamic by posing the films as male and female versions of the Marian myth. Acknowledges that evidence for this dichotomy exists, but both directors succeed in activating the Marian myth in ways that do not…

Argues that James Blue's complex documentaries had a limited effect on television viewers, but the films were a success nonetheless. States that it is vital to think of the complex documentary in terms of process, holding it accountable neither to the demands of the media's market economy nor to the stakes of political infighting. (PA)

While analyzing humor is difficult, Henri Bergson's concept of comedy (a person acting like a machine) outlined in the classic essay, "Le Rire," in 1900, is probably too narrow a definition. Science fiction film, a genre which has evolved since the publication of Bergson's essay, has also speculated about man and society, often to…

Argues that a study of adaptation affects the view of Douglas Sirk as a creator of social critique. Proposes interventions into adaptation studies and critical response to Sirk by attending to multiple activations of "All That Heaven Allows." Demonstrates the importance of the archaeology of film studies criticism to an understanding of…

Muses on the reasons for a "director's cut" of the 1969 Soviet film "The Color of Pomegranates," produced after the official version had initially been heavily reedited. Offers historical background on the film. States that it places unusual demands on its audiences, especially because of its density of texture and its…