The Visionary from Wackyland: Bob Clampett’s Early Films

Taking the example of early films by Bob Clampett, one of the most important animators of Classical Hollywood cinema, the paper explores the dichotomy between the so-called artistic animation and animation as a product of the Hollywood assembly lines and mass production system. While the former is seen as a proper art form and has a venerable treatment in animation studies, the latter is underappreciated, neglected and often dealt with in a patronizing way. This dichotomy is the main reason why the field of animation studies is very often elitist and full of biased and unbalanced approaches, wherein modernist works are seriously analysed, while the lighter, entertainment-oriented Hollywood fare is dismissed with condescension. However, as also argued by Fawell, the light touch and elegance of these films today makes them among the most significant works to come out of Hollywood. Bob Clampett directed 87 films in his career and the present paper deals with his early phase, namely the 40 Looney Tunes, which were all made in black-and-white and starred Porky. Although his later phase is beyond doubt more important and considered today among the most intriguing contributions to Hollywood animation, many of his early works also brim with energy and a feeling of vitality. Clampett’s early phase has so far been inadequately explored, but is also of immense importance for any serious analysis of the development of his style

REFLECTIONS OF THE FRENCH ART BETWEEN THE MID-19TH AND THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES IN VINCENTE MINNELLI’S FILMS

This paper examines and presents some heretofore familiar, as well as new suppositions: one being the influence of the French art between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries on two films by Vincente Minnelli directed in the 1950s – An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958). Following a brief discussion on some biographical details that may have been the reason for Minnelli’s affection for such art, and the development of his career, what follows is an overview of the production of both films, and more importantly an analysis of the references to art that shaped their visual component, while simultaneously attempting to disclose possible reasons for their appearance.Keywords: film musical, art, France, Vincente Minnelli, Arthur Freed

MARTIN SCORSESE’S CHARACTER DRIVEN FILMS: THE STUDY OF MAIN PROTAGONISTS IN TAXI DRIVER (1976) AND RAGING BULL (1980)

Martin Scorsese is a crucial figure in American cinema, and one of the few filmmakers who has possessed the gift to skillfully adapt genres and themes throughout the decades by making them thoroughly contemporary. Since his first appearance on the American film scene, this director’s corpus of films has been remarkable as he has successfully merged the commercial and the exploitative. This paper explores how the themes of violence, ethnicity, masculinity, and Catholicism have influenced Scorsese as a filmmaker, as well as the construction of his lead protagonists in Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980). Scorsese’s characters are conflicted, constantly seeking redemption, and are central to the plots of his film, which makes these aforementioned films essentially character-driven.Keywords:  Scorsese, violence, Catholicism, masculinity, redemption

Dickens to Lean: From Great Expectations to Great Adaptation(s)

The first part of this paper focuses on a close reading of certain episodes from book two of Dickens‟s Great Expectations as it is here that the reader encounters Pip‟s descriptions of, what is for him, a new world at their strongest. Three aspects of the way Pip describes this new world are at the centre of this analysis: Pip‟s experience of urban space, the way it affects those around him, and the aspect of class. These observations will give an insight into the highly cinematic Dickens‟s world, which has been a subject of many adaptations. Probably the best is David Lean‟s adaptation of Great Expectations, the focus of the second part of the paper, which elaborates on cinematic strategies devised by Lean to successfully adapt the novel, ranging from chiaroscuro cinematography and evocative sets to a careful balance between realistic and Gothic elements.Keywords: urban space, emptiness, adaptation, Gothic, voice-over narracion, etc

The Visionary from Wackyland: Bob Clampett’s Early Films

Taking the example of early films by Bob Clampett, one of the most important animators of Classical Hollywood cinema, the paper explores the dichotomy between the so-called artistic animation and animation as a product of the Hollywood assembly lines and mass production system. While the former is seen as a proper art form and has a venerable treatment in animation studies, the latter is underappreciated, neglected and often dealt with in a patronizing way. This dichotomy is the main reason why the field of animation studies is very often elitist and full of biased and unbalanced approaches, wherein modernist works are seriously analysed, while the lighter, entertainment-oriented Hollywood fare is dismissed with condescension. However, as also argued by Fawell, the light touch and elegance of these films today makes them among the most significant works to come out of Hollywood. Bob Clampett directed 87 films in his career and the present paper deals with his early phase, namely the 40 Looney Tunes, which were all made in black-and-white and starred Porky. Although his later phase is beyond doubt more important and considered today among the most intriguing contributions to Hollywood animation, many of his early works also brim with energy and a feeling of vitality. Clampett’s early phase has so far been inadequately explored, but is also of immense importance for any serious analysis of the development of his style

Postmodern Philosophy and the Impact of the Other in Jim Jarmusch's Films

Although film history has mostly been understood in national terms, there have also been attempts to present a general history of film styles. The history of film styles can be roughly divided into four distinct phases, each drawing on different aspects of narration. In the beginning, cinema privileged documentation and spectacle, presenting the exhibitionistic aspect of the new medium, whose structural characteristics had yet to be explored. Nöel Burch labeled this pre-narrative style a Primitive Mode of Representation, and this mode defied the narrative aspect of film-making. The shift towards narration occurred in the period between 1907 and 1909, when narrative films became the dominant mode of storytelling. The transition towards narrative cinema was mainly prompted by the demands of the market, which resulted in the gradual predominance of fictional narratives. The new style became known as the classical realist cinema, and Classical Hollywood Cinema became the leading representative