Search Results (14)

Contemporary politics is filled with anxiety about the survival of democracy—particularly within a framework pitting liberal representative democracy against authoritarianism. In times of anxiety about authoritarianism, Western artists repeatedly return to a masterpiece of relatively early cinema: Robert Weine’s silent film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This essay examines three twenty-first century adaptations: David Lee Fisher’s 2005 remake of the film; James Morrow’s 2017 novel, The Asylum of Dr. Caligari; and Georgie Bailey’s 2022 play Caligari. I argue that while the direct politico-cultural anxieties of Weine’s film have often been overstated, the emergence of adaptations during periods of heightened concern about authoritarianism reflects a deep-seated reception of the film as anticipating autocratic governance. However, for all its fears about power, control, and the loss of self-determination, Weine’s movie also contains the seeds of liberation. Cesare ultimately sacrifices his own life rather than murdering Jane. And it is this gesture that the adaptations examined here seek—a gesture of resistance. The sleepwalker can awaken and assert a form of just resistance in the world, even if the penalties are steep. Full article

As assisted driving technology advances and vehicle entertainment systems rapidly develop, future vehicles will become mobile cinemas, where passengers can use various multimedia applications in the car. In recent years, the progress in multimedia technology has given rise to immersive video experiences. In addition to conventional 2D videos, 360° videos are gaining popularity, and volumetric videos, which can offer users a better immersive experience, have been discussed. However, these applications place high demands on network capabilities, leading to a dependence on next-generation wireless communication technology to address network bottlenecks. Therefore, this study provides an exhaustive overview of the latest advancements in video streaming over vehicular networks. First, we introduce related work and background knowledge, and provide an overview of recent developments in vehicular networking and video types. Next, we detail various video processing technologies, including the latest released standards. Detailed explanations are provided for network strategies and wireless communication technologies that can optimize video transmission in vehicular networks, paying special attention to the relevant literature regarding the current development of 6G technology that is applied to vehicle communication. Finally, we proposed future research directions and challenges. Building upon the technologies introduced in this paper and considering diverse applications, we suggest a suitable vehicular network architecture for next-generation video transmission. Full article

Silent cinema acted as a bridge between early motion pictures and today’s film industry, playing a transformative role in shaping feminist film history and American society. This article explores pioneering American women in the silent film industry who ventured into technology, film culture, marginalized communities, and social movements. Despite the prevalence of racist and sexist propaganda, American silent films were a frontier for innovation, filmmaking, and exploring the New Women concept. This study examines 23 American silent films that have often been overlooked and rarely studied, whereby film analysis generally aligns with established feminist silent film theories. By shedding light on a previously overlooked film directed by May Tully, this study challenges the widespread belief that there existed “no women directors in 1925”. The examination of databases reaffirms American women directors’ contributions to silent films, especially during the early years of the silent film era. The results modify the previous scholarly notion that “influential women directors’ involvement was over by 1925”. Following an initial surge in their active leadership during the early years, influential women directors’ participation was over after 1922, rather than 1925. Full article

Background: The development of prolonged post-operative ileus (POI) remains a significant problem in the general surgical patient population. The aetiology of ileus is poorly understood and management options/preventative measures are currently extremely limited. The pathophysiology leading to a post-operative ileus is relatively poorly understood, and there is no validated method to estimate ileus occurrence or duration. Ileus in the post-operative period commonly occurs following major colorectal surgery and leads to painful abdominal distension, vomiting, nutritional deficit, pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays and susceptibility to hospital-acquired infection. An increased hospital stay, the burden of treatment costs and the burden on the health system highlight the importance of future research on finding definitions, preventions and predictions of ileus. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the rate of ileus on various treatments for prolonged post-operative ileus following colorectal surgery. A confidence evaluation in a meta-analysis were performed using CINeMA. Direct and indirect comparisons of all interventions were simultaneously carried out using a network meta-analysis. The level of certainty was appraised using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach. The method of assessing the risk of bias, the quality assessment, used the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool (RoB2). Results: Among the seven included studies, the majority suffered from considerable within-study bias, affecting the confidence rates of study findings. Heterogeneity and incoherence made the pairwise meta-analysis and ranking of interventions unfeasible. Indirect comparisons were considered unreliable due to this incoherence. Conclusions: This systematic review, with a confidence evaluation in the network meta-analysis, determined that there is a knowledge gap in the field of study on prolonged ileus following digestive surgery. The current evidence suffers from heterogeneity and incoherence more than imprecision. There is a gap in the data on ileus occurrence in interventional trials for digestive surgery. This could inform clinicians and trialists to better appraise the current literature and plan future trials. Full article

During the COVID-19 pandemic, smart home requirements have shifted toward entertainment at home. The purpose of this research project was therefore to develop a robotic audio system for home automation. High-end audio systems normally refer to multichannel home theaters. Although multichannel audio systems enable people to enjoy surround sound as they do at the cinema, stereo audio systems have been popularly used since the 1980s. The major shortcoming of a stereo audio system is its narrow listening area. If listeners are out of the area, the system has difficulty providing a stable sound field. This is because of the head-shadow effect blocking the high-frequency sound. The proposed system, by integrating computer vision and robotics, can track the head movement of a user and adjust the directions of loudspeakers, thereby helping the sound wave travel through the air. Unlike previous studies, in which only a diminutive scenario was built, in this work, the idea was applied to a commercial 2.1 audio system, and listening tests were conducted. The theory and the simulation coincide with the experimental results. The approximate rate of audio quality improvement is 31%. The experimental results are encouraging, especially for high-pitched music. Full article

Cinematic adaptations of videogames are an increasingly common feature of film culture, and the adaptive relationship between these mediums is an increasingly common subject of film and videogame studies. However, our ability to historicize and theorize that relationship is hampered by a failure to fully define the generic character of our object of study. This essay asks, what is a videogame movie? It argues that film scholars (1) have not considered the full range of ways videogames have been represented in film; (2) have not attended fully to the historical, technological, figurative, and social dimensions of videogames; and therefore (3) have limited the set of possible texts that comprise the genre “videogame cinema.” The essay recommends a tropological approach to the problem, defining six tropes that comprise the “videogame movie” as a genre, and applying them to two films, Her and 1917, neither of them a direct adaptation of a videogame, the latter not “about” or referencing videogames in any way, yet both exemplary of a broadened concept of “videogame cinema”. Full article

In World War II the Allies and Axis deployed propaganda in myriad forms, among which cinema was especially important in arousing patriotism and boosting morale. Britain and Germany made propaganda films from Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 to the war’s end in 1945, most commonly documentaries, historical films, and after 1939, fictional films about the ongoing conflict. Curiously, the historical films included several about fifteenth and sixteenth century England. In The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), director Alexander Korda—an admirer of Winston Churchill and opponent of appeasement—emphasizes the need for a strong navy to defend Tudor England against the ‘German’ Charles V. The same theme appears with Philip II of Spain as an analog for Hitler in Arthur B. Wood’s Drake of England (1935), William Howard’s Fire Over England (1937), parts of which reappear in the propaganda film The Lion Has Wings (1939), and the pro-British American film The Sea Hawk (1940). Meanwhile, two German films little known to present-day English language viewers turned the tables with English villains. In Gustav Ucicky’s Das Mädchen Johanna (Joan of Arc, 1935), Joan is the female embodiment of Hitler and wages heroic warfare against the English. In Carl Froelich’s Das Herz der Königin (The Heart of a Queen, 1940), Elizabeth I is an analog for an imperialistic Churchill and Mary, Queen of Scots an avatar of German virtues. Finally, to boost British morale on D-Day at Churchill’s behest, Laurence Olivier directed a masterly film version of William Shakespeare’s Henry V (1944), edited to emphasize the king’s virtues and courage, as in the St. Crispin’s Day speech with its “We few, we proud, we band of brothers”. This essay examines the aesthetic appeal, the historical accuracy, and the presentist propaganda in such films. Full article

The subject of this article is nation branding in the culture market, namely the role cinematography plays in creating a nation brand. Sustainability and sustainable development in the film industry is conditioned by variety in cultural promotion channels. The aim of the authors is to prove that appropriately organised cinematography promotion abroad can positively influence the image of a given country. The first section deals with the relationship between media and sustainable development, as well as with theoretical definitions of branding and the nation brand. Subsequently, cinematography in the context of branding is discussed. The core of this work is a case study of film promotion abroad from the institutional perspective of the Polish Film Institute. The promotional strategy for “Cold War” (2018) directed by Paweł Pawlikowski has been analysed, as this motion picture is considered one of the biggest successes of post-1989 Polish cinematography. Factors positively influencing its popularity were analysed alongside their influence on the general perception of Polish cinema abroad. Based on the results of empirical studies, the authors present their discussion of the functional state and the role of Polish cinematography on the global circuit, as well as attempt to verify its importance in relation to sustainability. Full article

This paper focuses on two discrete bodies of work, Hani Susumu’s films of the late 1950s and Tsuchimoto Noriaki’s Minamata documentaries of the early 1970s, to trace the emergence of the cinéma vérité mode of participant-observer, small-crew documentary in Japan and to suggest how it shapes the work of later social documentarists. It argues that Hani Susumu’s emphasis on duration and receptivity in the practice of filmmaking, along with his pragmatic understanding of the power of the cinematic image, establish a fundamentally different theoretical basis and set of questions for social documentary than the emphasis on mobility and access, and the attendant question of truth that tend to afflict the discourse of cinéma vérité in the U.S. and France. Tsuchimoto Noriaki critically adopts and develops Hani’s theoretical and methodological framework in his emphasis on long-running involvement with the subjects of his films and his practical conviction that the image is not single-authored, self-sufficient, or meaningful in and of itself, but emerges from collaboration and must be embedded in a responsive social practice in order to meaningfully reach an audience. Hani and Tsuchimoto both believe that it is possible for filmmakers and the film itself to be fundamentally processual and intersubjective: grounded in actual collaboration, but also underwritten by a belief that intersubjective processes are more basic to human being than “the individual,” let alone “the author.” This paper explores the implications for representation and ethics of this basic difference in vérité theory and practice in Japan. Full article

Starting from the perspective that national cinema is not a neutral concept, but rather a film expression with ideological implications, in this article I will argue that what should be analysed in films is not what connects them to certain nations, but with certain ideologies. Rather than claiming the national nature of a film, it is more accurate to identify for instance elements of a national ideology underlying the film. It can be more enriching to analyse different film trends that are based on their connections with different ideologies, thus stressing their political nature, rather than highlighting cultural or geographical features in order to determine the supposedly natural outline of national cinemas. From this point of view, I consider the Japanese New Wave cinema of the 1960s and early 1970s to be a reflection of Japan’s coetaneous New Left ideology. In order to illustrate this political reading of the Japanese New Wave, I focus on the analysis of a paradigmatic film: Eros + Massacre (Erosu purasu Gyakusatsu 1969), directed by Yoshida Kijū. Full article

This paper explores the cinematic meta-theme of the “death of cinema” through the lens of Taiwanese director, Tsai Ming-liang’s 2003 film, Goodbye, Dragon Inn. In the film, the final screening of the wuxia pian classic, Dragon Inn, directed by King Hu, provides a focal point for the exploration of the diminished experience of institutional cinema in the post-cinematic age. Using the concept of “dissipation” in conjunction with a reappraisal of the turn to affect theory, this paper explores the kinds of subjective experiences that cinema can offer, and the affective experience of cinema-going itself, as portrayed in Goodbye, Dragon Inn. More specifically, in theorizing the role of dissipation in cinema-going, this paper explores the deployment of time and space in Goodbye, Dragon Inn and how it directs attention to the bodily action of cinema-going itself. The result is a critique of the possibilities of post-cinematic affects, rooted in an understanding of the way that late-capitalism continues to dominate and shape the range of experiences in the contemporary moment. Full article

Because Sebald’s books are preoccupied with historical catastrophe, particularly the Holocaust, critical commentaries have often interpreted them in terms of the transmission of traumatic memory. But this stress on the temporal relay from past to present and future generations has drawn attention away from the emphasis on space and travel in Sebald’s work. In order to address this gap in Sebald criticism, this essay discusses three films that adapt and respond to Sebald’s work: Patience (After Sebald) (directed by Grant Gee, 2012), Terezin (directed by Daniel Blaufuks, 2010) and Austerlitz (directed by Stan Neumann, 2015). Because of the cinema’s constant movement between images and places, these films allow us to see more clearly the aspects of Sebald’s writings concerned with traveling and making connections between different archival spaces. The journeys in Sebald’s books and in these films inspired by them go beyond human life worlds to include non-human creatures, and beyond the realms of the living to include those inhabited by the dead. This suspension of the boundary between life and death, along with the restless movement from place to place, creates a relationship to memory and history that cannot be limited to the model of traumatic transmission. Full article

The article examines Successors (Nasledniki, 2015) directed by Vladimir Khotinenko, illustrating a recent trend in the Russian film-making industry, namely, a rising interest in religious topics. While the Orthodox faith is widely seen by Russian political leaders as a basic aspect of national identity, the Church is also becoming more and more visible in the life of society, with religious holidays and events now receiving a higher profile in the public domain. The article analyzes how these trends shape the public consciousness and are reflected in the cinema production of recent years. Successors, a one location movie focusing on the debate over the role of Saint Sergius of Radonezh in the history of Russia, demonstrates that this 14th-century monk is very much present in the lives and minds of people 700 years later. In turn, this suggests that, under a layer of cynicism and consumerism, there is a growing hunger for holiness in a post-secular society. Full article

This paper explores the modern metropolis as an ironically concrete metaphor for the collective memory and the mourning of cinema’s passing, as it—the “city”—is digitally constructed in two recent, auteur-directed, special effects-driven blockbuster films, Inception and Hugo. The modern city, and mass media, such as the cinema, as well as modes of mass transport, especially the train, all originate in the 19th century, but come into their own in the early 20th century in their address to a subject as the mobilised citizen-consumer who, as Anne Friedberg makes clear, is also always a viewer. Additionally, as Barbara Mennel has recently shown, the advent in Europe of trains and time zones, in their transformation of modern time and space, paved the way for cinema’s comparably cataclysmic impact upon modern subjectivity in its iconic reproduction of movement within illusory 3D space. Both films, thus, in their different ways employ cinematic remediation as a form of cultural memory whose nostalgia for cinema’s past is rendered with the latest digital effects, hidden in plain sight in the form of subjective memories (as flashback) and dreams. While a version of this reading has been advanced before (at least for Hugo), this paper goes further by connecting each film’s status as remediated dream-memory to its respective dependence upon the city as a post-cinematic three-dimensional framework within which locative and locomotive desires alike determine a subject whose psyche is indistinguishable from the cityscape that surrounds him. Full article