Going Down on Good Neighbours: Imagining América in Hollywood Movies of the 1930s and 1940s (Flying Down to Rio and Down Argentine Way)

During the Good Neighbor Era of the 1930s and 1940s, the USA sought to normalise relations with Latin America in order to promote hemispheric unity, particularly so after the outbreak of the Second World War, which provoked anxiety about transatlantic trade routes and South American attitudes towards the Axis. An Office of the Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs was established, which in turn set up a Motion Picture Division. The Division pressed for a Latin American specialist to monitor and control representations of Latin America via the Production Code Administration. The attempt to promote positive portrayals of Latin Americans assisted a boom in musical comedies dealing with North Americans visiting their southern neighbours. This article examines an early precursor, Flying Down to Rio (1933), and a full-blown Good Neighbor movie, Down Argentine Way (1940). The article uncovers, behind the optimistic projection of neighbourliness, hidden tensions and deep-rooted anxieties about American identities.     

文化冲突理论与青少年犯罪

“文化冲突”理论是犯罪学领域中的一种理论，它将文化冲突问题运用于研究犯罪成因。文化冲突存在于两个层面，即外表冲突与内心冲突，基本冲突与从属冲突。将文化冲突理论运用于研究青少年犯罪问题，不仅能够使我们认识到文化冲突是青少年犯罪的一个重要诱因，进而还能够在如何治理青少年犯罪的问题上得到有益的启发。影视剧分级制度能够从源头上解决一部分的文化冲突，从而减少青少年犯罪的可能性。     

温柔的影像军团——论好莱坞文化霸权的多面性特征

当全球化处在以强势国家的政治经济文化优势为主导力量的后殖民背景中时,好莱坞电影便成为了一支生力之师,几乎将全世界变成了美国电影的超级市场。好莱坞不仅在获得巨大经济利益的同时吞噬着其他国家的本土电影工业,而且还通过美国式的时尚、风格、意识形态、价值观、文化理念的传播深刻地影响着其他国家的民族想象和文化认同,对维护各个民族的文化传统、保持多元的文化趣味和思想价值提出了挑战。     

Passport examination by polarized infrared spectra

In this study, a new nondestructive technique for passport examination is proposed. In this technique, linearly polarized light is used to measure Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) reflectance spectra of films on the biographical data page. Thirty genuine and thirty-five counterfeit Japanese passports and five marketed films pasted on name cards were examined. The measured spectra were analyzed as follows. The absorption spectra were obtained by the Kramers-Kronig transformations of reflectance spectra. The peak ratios were then calculated from the absorption spectra by adding the peak areas at 1126 and 1263 cm(-1) and dividing the result by the peak area at 1727 cm(-1). When nonpolarized light was used, the samples could not be distinguished by comparing the peak ratios. However, when polarized light was used, they were successfully distinguished by the comparison. Therefore, polarized light is useful for the forensic discrimination of passport films by the measurement of FT-IR spectra.     

The Dynamics of Stereotyping: Is a New Image of the Terrorist Evolving in American Popular Culture?

This article considers popular ways of representing terror activists, and the metamorphoses that approaches to representation in the American media have undergone. A part of the article deals with terrorism in the media over time, common stereotypes, and how they affect the representation of Arabs and Muslims. The article then discusses Sleeper Cell (2005), a mini-series which focuses on a Jihad terror group. The article addresses questions including: How are Arabs and non-Arab Muslims portrayed in the series? Can a real change be observed over time in the method of portraying them? Twentieth-century historical considerations precede the pointed topical discussion.     

The rise of film production and the politics of the star system in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The rise of film production and the ubiquitous presence of the ‘new wave’ of South African films on the international scene in recent years have raised expectations amongst local film stars hoping to get their biggest break by taking leading roles in major South African productions. However, most of these films – particularly co-productions – have continuously used foreign stars in leading roles. As a result, local stars have constantly voiced concerns about the proliferation of foreign artists in leading roles in South African productions. Many explanations have been offered in trying to understand why filmmakers tend to cast a foreign star when a local one could probably do a better job (in, for example, portraying a local icon like Nelson Mandela) and still command a lesser fee. However, this article puts forward that most of these arguments are based on intuition rather than on the real dynamics and externalities governing this practice. The article attempts to make sense of this issue by arguing that the rationale for this practice stems from a film being a high-risk investment that it is driven by the broader financial imperatives of film production. The article offers empirical evidence to suggest that stars do not add economic value to the film, but to themselves (see Elberse 2005), since the bulk of the money goes towards their appearance fees. It is concluded that the traditional model guiding film finance and the logic behind it need to be looked at afresh, given the fact that several films have failed at the box office, both locally and internationally, despite featuring major foreign stars, compared to the massive success of some local films (e.g., Jerusalema, Tsotsi and Yesterday) with local stars in the leading roles.     

Postfeminism and the South African Context through the Prism of a Bloodsoaked Imagination

ABSTRACT

Since its inception in 1982, postfeminism continues to be a highly contested concept in cultural, media and gender studies, due to its diverse interpretations by academics. While a specific definition is debatable, for purposes of this article, the meaning of postfeminism is articulated as a pluralistic and contradictory discourse that has a particular fascination with, and the erotic representation of, female bodies. It includes hyperfemininity, heterosexual love, and hypersexuality, as well as an emphasis on the maternal drive and domesticity. This articulation of postfeminism frames the discourse used to analyse the female heroines in Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. Furthermore, this article questions the (ir)relevancy of postfeminism to the socio-political realities in post-apartheid, postcolonial South Africa.     

蒙古族题材电影叙事方式与文化建构研究

蒙古族题材电影在其历史发展过程中形成四种基本的叙事范式:第一,以意识形态和政治需求为导向的国族化叙事;第二,以美丽边疆和日常生活呈现为导向的景观化叙事;第三,以民族认同和草原文化表达为向导的民族化叙事;第四,以聚焦个体和关注现实为导向的个体化叙事。文章基于叙事方式的发展与变化,厘清蒙古族题材电影的演进规律,探寻内在的动因,思考叙事方式与文化建构之间的逻辑关系,进而凸显电影文本对文化建构的理论价值和实践意义。     

新疆题材电影民族化研究

新疆作为一个多民族聚居的地区,多民族的文化沃土为影视创作提供了丰富的素材。从建国至今新疆题材电影在创作中以本地区各民族群众的生活方式、风俗民情、文化观念及民族精神为主要内容,来实现新疆题材电影的民族化。     

(Re)inventing African oral traditions and national heritage(s) through film images: The case of Keita! The Heritage of the Griot [1995] and Kare Kare Zvako: Mother's Day [2004]

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to explore how African films such as Keita! The Heritage of the Griot and Kare Kare Zvako: Mother's Day reinvent oral traditions on-screen, so that the traditions are revitalised and given new life in a contemporary world where visual and literary narratives have tended to dominate the collection and dissemination of information. The ontological and cosmological dimensions of African oral traditions provide the cultural humus that continues to feed the narrative structures of most African films. It is argued that the films' conscious refusal to be totally submerged in European modernism or their capacity to merge some traditional aspects with modern values is what constructs the multiple subjectivities that most African filmmakers strive to bring out. By using oral narrative structures embedded in songs, storytelling, myths, legends, poems, riddles, anecdotes and proverbs, the selected African films recreate traditions and heritage; they help to preserve African values that face a Western onslaught, promoted through European languages. Oral narratives carry a freight of cultural meanings infused in different modes of expression, while articulating the philosophies and beliefs of African people. It is important to recognise and [re]discover the critical role played by oral narratives in order to understand the epistemologies and ontologies that inform the construction of African films. A study of this nature is critical in that it builds on the existing indigenous knowledge systems embedded in orature (oral literature) that remain threatened by European cultural imperialism, which is promoted through the Hollywood film paradigm.