In “Theory Number Five: Anatomy of Nostalgic Films: Heritage and Method (1977), one of the first writings which addressed nostalgic representations of the past in cinema, Marc Le Sueur notes that nostalgia is “a concept of history”, one for which “few have attempted to establish the general working principles” (p.189). It is not a conservative phenomenon, but rather a way of engaging with the past and bringing into the present that which other approaches to history ignore, as he further indicates. His conception prefigured two dominant tendencies of research into nostalgia in film studies. While the first examines the use of intertextual devices and flashbacks to evoke nostalgia (Lurry 2000, Wollen 1991), the second aims to evaluate the relationship between nostalgic film and history (Boym 2001, Dika 2003, Grainger 2002, Hutcheon 1989, Jameson 1985). Although the former identifies useful tools for cinematic analysis of film texts, the latter is more relevant to media and cultural studies, for it assesses nostalgia in relation to our historical consciousness. The film “The English Patient” (1996), written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, presents its audiences with a complex mise-en-scène viewed through the filter of nostalgic memories and demonstrates those vital issues of cinematic nostalgia on various levels. Therefore, in this essay, I shall examine the way in which nostalgia in the movie helps reflect on issues of the “present”, subvert the undisputed history and offer competing mythologies of the 1930s.
The film tells the life story a critically burned plane crash victim, who was at first reluctant to disclose any personal information and only known as “the English patient”. In the last days of World War II, ...
... middle of paper ...
...inema of the 1990s. In R. Murphy, 2000, ed., British Cinema of the ‘90s. London: British Film Institute Publishing, pp. 100–108.
Provencal, V., 2002. Sleeping with Herodotus in The English Patient. Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne (SCL/ÉLC), 27 (2), [online] Available at: [Accessed 17 January 2014].
Rubenstein, R., 2000. Home Matters: Longing and Belonging, Nostalgia and Mourning in Women’s Fiction. New York: Palgrave.
Sprengler, C., 2009. Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books
Wollen, T., 1991. Over Our Shoulders: Nostalgic Screen Fictions for the 1980s. In J. Corner and S. Harvey, eds, 1991, Enterprise and Heritage: Crosscurrents of National Culture. London: Routledge, pp. 178–93
Braudy, Leo and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fifth Edition. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental feminism and literature's ancestral house: Another look at The Yellow Wallpaper". Women's Studies. 12:2 (1986): 113-128.
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
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
Small, Pauline. (2005) New Cinemas: journal of Contemporary Film Volume 3, Queen Mary, University of London
Bordwell David and Thompson, Kristen. Film Art: An Introduction. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
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...
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
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.
During the mid and late 1970’s, the mood of American films shifted sharply. People needed to get away from such negative memories as the Vietnam War, long gas lines, the resignation of President Nixon, and ...
Cinema studies: the key concepts (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. 2007. Lacey, N. (2005). The 'Standard'. Film Language.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Since the late 1890’s films have been constantly changing the history of pop culture and the way people view war, politics, and the world as a whole. As the timeline of the history of film progressed, there were many different phases: gothic noir, slapstick comedy, tragedy vs. love, romance, and many more. Towards the more recent times, the central ideas of films started drifting to the greatness of the directors. Directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and many more were noted as outstanding directors of action and cinematography. In this paper I will speak about Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and the ever so infamous Baz Luhrmann. These directors have changed the way filmmaking has been and will be looked at from this point on.
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.