Browsing by Subject "European cinema"
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Item Challenging European borders : Fatih Akın's filmic visions of Europe(2011-05) Gueneli, Berna; Hake, Sabine, 1956-; Arens, Katherine; Broadbent, Philip; Moeller, Hans-Bernhard; Bos, Pascale; Fuller, JenniferIn my dissertation, I discuss three of Akın’s feature films: Im Juli (In July, 2000), Gegen die Wand (Head-On, 2004), and Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven, 2007) in order to investigate Akın’s filmic visions of Europe. Through close textual readings, I analyze three aspects of his films in particular: the spatial conceptions of Europe (city- and landscapes), the sounds of Europe (music and languages) as well as the display of ethnic minorities and the changing urban demography in Germany and Europe. I argue that Akın employs an “aesthetic of heterogeneity” to portray his filmic Europe as a diverse space, in which multiethnic and multilingual music, people, and sceneries are juxtaposed with regions that often have been perceived historically and politically as distinct and complicated. My first chapter discusses Akın’s conceptions and depictions of European Space in In July. By analyzing city- and landscapes, soundscapes, and dynamic spaces in In July, I argue that Akın provides a dynamic, fluctuating, and interconnected European space, including Eastern Europe and Turkey. In my second chapter, I scrutinize language use and dialogue in Head-On to map out the changing demographics in European urban spaces. Ultimately, I argue that Akın moves beyond Hamid Naficy’s theory of “accented cinema” by including accented languages and dialects for all protagonists, including Western Europeans. Through this linguistic polyphony, multilingualism and a diversity of accents are depicted as integral elements of today’s Europe. In my final chapter, I discuss the sound of Europe as depicted in The Edge of Heaven. Looking particularly at music (and music lyrics) in the film, I argue that Akın’s use of dubbed and remixed music (especially by the artist Shantel) underscores Akın’s filmic challenges to (national) European borders. By foregrounding the mixed styles of music, where an “original” becomes hard to decipher, the director shows, on an aural level, that blurring boundaries and multidirectional movement are the predominant components of today’s Europe.Item DEFA and East European cinemas : co-productions, transnational exchange and artistic collaborations(2011-05) Ivanova, Mariana Zaharieva; Hake, Sabine, 1956-; Belgum, Kirsten L.; Bos, Pascale R.; Moeller, Hans-Benrhard; Crew, David F.; Neuberger, Joan H.This dissertation focuses on film co-productions of the East German film studio DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft) with East and West European partners. It revisits patterns of institutional and transnational collaboration during the Cold War in order to challenge the predominant cliché of the isolation of East European film industries. The project seeks to re-position East German cinema within evolving debates on European film, deriving its argument from archival research on production histories and contemporaneous press releases, as well as from correspondence and personal testimonials such as interviews with former East German and East European filmmakers. The discussion is structured around three categories that focus attention on the interplay between the East German studio’s co-production agenda and state-imposed film policy: cultural prestige, popular entertainment, and international solidarity. I devote a chapter to each category in my study, and show how co-productions, as collective enterprises at the intersection of national cinemas, allowed DEFA to compete for internationally renowned film stars and to re-appropriate Hollywood genres by forming multinational film collectives and sharing sets, talent, and production costs, while simultaneously negotiating complex economic, political, and market conditions in each host country. This project moves beyond previous approaches to East German film as European cinema’s ‘other.’ DEFA co-productions provide a privileged route into the examination of socialist film production as a state-controlled and ideologically compliant cultural domain, and, at the same time, as a venue for artistic collaborations that challenged the limitations of state censorship and sponsorship. Undoubtedly, East German and East European films were influenced by international developments and responded to them. Focusing on DEFA as a case study, I shed light on the negotiation of cultural policies not only within a discrete film studio, but also among the various institutions involved in filmmaking in Eastern Europe.Item Transforming European cinema : transnational filmmaking in the era of global conglomerate Hollywood(2012-05) Liebing, Hans-Martin; Schatz, Thomas, 1948-; Moeller, Hans-Bernhard; Ramírez Berg, Charles; Straubhaar, Joseph D; Suber, HowardThe film industries in Europe have undergone a series of fundamental structural and strategic changes during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. This study looks at the nature of some of these changes, focusing on the Big Five film producing countries in Europe: the U.K., France, West Germany and the reunified Germany, Italy and Spain. It examines how the transformation of the U.S. film industry from “The New Hollywood” of the 1960s and 1970s into “Conglomerate Hollywood” in the 1980s, and into “Global Conglomerate Hollywood” in the 1990s affected the Big Five film industries in Europe. In this context, the question is raised: How have these changes influenced European development strategies and practices, leading to the creation of an increasing number of transnational motion pictures originating in, and produced in collaboration with, these film industries. The study finds that conglomeration and globalization trends within the U.S. entertainment industry have gone hand in hand with the changes observable in the Big Five European film industries in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. These changes include, but are not limited to, an altered definition of talent and the creative process, as well as notions of authorship, in European cinema. They also encompass an increased emphasis on an often neglected phase of film production: the development process, which is typically comprised of the conception of an idea or the acquisition of an existing fiction or non-fiction property to adapt, the research of potential markets and audiences, the writing and rewriting of a script, the casting of a movie’s lead characters, and the raising of production financing. To examine the nature and extent of the perceived changes, the study relies primarily on academic literature on the U.S. and European film industries; European and U.S. trade publications; as well as observations from several years of attending the Berlinale Co-Production Market and the European Film Market (both part of the Berlin International Film Festival) and the Marché du Film (part of the Cannes Film Festival). It also draws from a number of oral histories of industry professionals from both continents conducted by the author.