What is ‘Art’ Cinema?
A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 296
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In 1979, David Bordwell famously defined art cinema as a mode of practice, arguing that it was not only a distinct mode of film practice, whose lineage could be traced back to early film d’art, but that it consists of a distinct set of conventions and viewing imperatives. Further art cinema is inseparable to the cinema of the auteur, as espoused by Cahiers du Cinéma in the late 1950s onwards, motivated by, as Bordwell contends, realism and authorial expressivity (1979, p. 57). In the contemporary era of streaming, marked by accessibility to global cinema, is it still possible to maintain such distinct boundaries between art and mainstream cinema, given that in recent years foreign language films are often situated as art cinema even when they are exhibited and consumed as mainstream cinema in their country of origin? It seems that subtitles are enough to categorise a film as ‘art’, as can also be seen in the regulatory body of the BBFC in the UK, where censorship is practiced in relation to the so-called intrinsic worth of a film. Indeed, it could be argued that the categorisation of art cinema is closely connected to the space in which it is exhibited, rather than an innate quality of the film, closely aligned to marketing practices. This Special Issue invites scholars to submit papers that engage with, interrogate, or reinterpret the relationship between art as a signifier of value and cinema, particularly in relation to global cinemas. We particularly encourage papers from scholars of the Global South as underrepresented voices in this ongoing debate.
Dr. Colette Balmain
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- film studies
- art cinema and the auteur
- independent and experimental cinema
- the blockbuster versus the contemplative
- economies of value
- aesthetics and the image
- global cinema
- slow cinema
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