film theory
National cinema is a tough subject to broach. You may not have even heard of it before. Film Inquiry provides a beginners guide.
Why is it that Wes Anderson, genius auteur and filmmaker extraordinaire, is able to achieve balance when placing his subjects dead center?
It’s possible that the great Pauline Kael might have liked Joker – Chris Cassingham compares it to another controversially violent film, Bonnie & Clyde.
Gadsby delivers Nanette with not just a message, but a narrative, something more commonly described by another word when such a show is recorded – film.
Maria Lattila examines how generic slashers actually hide a hugely empowering element, the Final Girls of horror fulfilling and enabling feminine power and potential.
On numerous conscious and subconscious levels, Jean Vigo’s Zero for Conduct is one of the most honest examinations of humanity and human society yet made in cinematic form. That is Anarchic Cinema.
Tighter constraints on content mean minor or extreme events examples of life imitating art would not occur, however censorship’s archaic and controlling past revokes one of the most important human rights: freedom of speech. Will this fight ever end?
In our latest entry of Anarchic Cinema, we discuss the birth of Japanese V-Cinema and the contributions of Takashi Miike.
Zac Hestand explores how Dee Rees’ Mudbound excels as a contemporary successor to the classic work of William Faulkner.
Matthew Roe explores the Dogme 95 movement, arguing that it shows the boundaries of the human psyche, creativity and sociopolitical climate more effectively than any other movement of its time.
The importance and brilliance of colour in film cannot be stressed enough. Colour has the amazing ability to grab the audience’s attention, foreshadow information and control or influence emotion consciously and/or subliminally.
It’s time we opened up auteur theory to include more than the director; actors leave unique marks on their films, and deserve our critical attention.
In this film theory piece, we discuss auteur theory, the film theory that states the director is the supreme reigning artist of their work.
Religious figures and various saints have been on film since the birth of the medium. It can be tricky for a director to present the story of a venerated character, as they can mean many things to different people. In both Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc and the Martin Scorsese picture The Last Temptation of Christ, the directors brought their own religious visions to screen, although not without controversy.
Paradoxes are not discussed widely in cinema, firstly because they are difficult to understand. Secondly, they simply mess with everyone’s fun. However, they create interesting arguments, and the time travel genre is a great fan of the ‘why not?