World Cinema Glossary

Glossary

Alternative

In the context of World cinema, it is usually cited as the opposite of mainstream cinema,

referring to films that offer an alternative use of film form or represent different ideological

perspectives.

Art cinema

Typically applied to non-commercial, nonmainstream films, often from the European

‘art-house’ circuit; these may be challenging in subject matter or experimental in style,

narrative form and genre. Distributors tend to target a niche audience who are interested in

innovative and experimental approaches to filmmaking.

Audience

In Media Studies, the emphasis tends to be how an audience is targeted by media

producers, or on reception theory, ie how an audience ‘receives’ a text (such as the effects

on audiences of violent films). Film Studies tends to emphasise the individual experience

of watching a film, spectatorship (see separate listing), as well as the site and condition of

viewing (multiplex, art-house cinema etc).

Auteur

A director whose collective work features consistency of style, theme or approach,

privileged over genre or narrative. The time and place in which the auteur is working is

significant, often leading to subsequent reappraisal of her or his work. The concept of

auteur has long been a subject for debate among film theorists as it tends to emphasise

the director’s input over that of other creative personnel. In World cinema, auteur theory

tends to be more prevalent, then in relation to the genre-/industry-based films of Hollywood

(although there are particular US filmmakers who are considered to be auteurs).

Avant-garde

Literally meaning ‘front guard’ and originally a military term; used to describe art forms (fine

art, sculpture, literature, theatre, cinema etc) that are at the forefront of opposition to

establishment forms. The history of international cinema has been characterised by various examples of avant-garde filmmaking (expressing a challenge to establishment cinema in terms of ideology and use of film form), often connected with art or political movements, such as Dadaism or feminism.

Binary opposition

Used to describe the use of polar opposites as a structuring device in art, literature and media, such as day/night, good/evil, male/female, black/white etc. Claude Lévi-Strauss originally used the idea in his work as an anthropologist and adopted by structural theorists.

Cinematic New Waves

Generally used to describe a group of films emerging at certain times out of specific

cultural and historical contexts. Two of the most prominent of these are the French New

Wave of Paris in the late1950s and the Hong Kong New Wave, at the time of Hong Kong’s

reunification with China. More recently, Mexican and Latin American New Wave cinemas have been identified.

Cultural imperialism

The domination by large US-based corporations of international markets, especially in the areas of food, fashion, music and popular entertainment, which often undermines the cultural status and economic viability of indigenous producers. This dominance is equated with more traditional kinds of imperialism or colonisation, whereby one country takes over another politically and militarily. In the case of cultural imperialism, dominance is achieved by economics and popular culture, often with the complicity of the indigenous audience. Also see Hegemony.

student notes

Discourse

Discourse is the expression of a point of view. The terms dominant, subordinate and radical

can also be used to describe a discourse. When used in a cultural or ideological context,

it frequently refers to the fact that the discourse in, for example, a film text, emanates from a

dominant position or ideology, such as that of Hollywood and US culture. In World cinema,

filmmakers from different countries may present a discourse from a subordinate or radical position, related to their particular culture or ideological perspective (eg a feminist or post-colonial discourse). Some of the more subtle aspects of this relate to the way power

is used to control a discourse and to position an audience.

Distribution

The process by which films are rented from the production company to the exhibitor, including the circulation of film prints as well as the rights to sell the film on video/DVD,

television etc.

Ethnocentrism

The use of one’s own culture, or ethnicity, to judge another person’s/country’s. Frequently

this term (and its variants, such as Eurocentrism) is used to discuss issues of ideology and is related to the concepts of cultural imperialism and representation, chiefly in respect of the (mis)apprehension that one’s own culture is superior.

European cinema

A generalised term often used to classify cinema in opposition to ‘Hollywood’ in terms of audience, with films classified as being part of Art cinema (see separate listing). The category is problematic as it includes very diverse cinemas.

Exhibition

The process by which films are released according to a schedule and screened at cinemas.

Film grammar and style

The established conventions of the language of film (that are created by the constituents of

moving images and sound) and the devices at its disposal, eg the meaning introduced the

organising principles, or grammar, of genre and narrative. For example, genre conventions

can only work (or be subverted) if the rules are correctly displayed and interpreted by film and spectator.

Globalisation

Marshal McLuhan's prediction in the 1960s of a 'global village' is taken for granted in the 21st century world of mass communication. The globalisation of culture refers to the omnipresence of recognised brands, and the globalisation of the media refers to the

convergence of companies and their products. For example, international media ownership is chiefly concentrated in the hands of the 'Big Six': Viacom, Bertelsmann AG, Disney, News Corporation, Vivendi Universal and AOL-Time-Warner.

Hegemony

Derived from the work of Italian political thinker and Marxist Antonio Gramsci, hegemony

refers to the power that a strong social group exerts to create a consensus which makes

their status seem natural, common-sense and legitimate. It is often used to describe the

powerful effect of Hollywood mainstream cinema, whose use of film form and ideology

(ideas, values and beliefs) seems the only or best way to make films. This hegemony of Hollywood, it is argued, makes it difficult for audiences to enjoy and appreciate any other

kinds of cinema, even indigenous films.

Heterogeneous/homogeneous

Two useful terms used to describe the representation of people, their culture and ideology. Heterogeneity, being the opposite of homogeneity, describes the differences in any given constituency, ie all women are not the same, all Americans are not the same, all people of colour are not the same. In ideological analyses of Hollywood films, it is often asserted that dominant cinema tends to reinforce homogeneity, whereas World cinema emphasises difference, contradiction and plurality.

Independent/‘indie’

The term referred originally to film production companies that were independent of the Hollywood studio system. In contemporary Hollywood, however, very few filmmakers are

completely independent from some aspect of the Hollywood production, distribution or

exhibition process. So the term – especially the abbreviation ‘indie’ – is now frequently

used to describe a style of film, typically aimed at either a young or art-house audience,

perhaps with low production values or self-consciously formal techniques. The term is similarly applied to some genres of contemporary music, where true independence from major record labels is rare, but ‘indie’ describes a style of music appealing to a niche audience.

Indigenous

Belonging to the country of origin under discussion.

Mainstream

Usually referring to popular cinema.

Movement

A political or artistic phenomenon where several individuals unite to develop an idea, policy or art form at the same time, sometimes related to the avant-garde or underground. The history of film is punctuated with specific movements, such as Russian Formalism, Italian Neo-Realism, Surrealism, German Expressionism, film noir, French New Wave, British Free Cinema etc.

‘Other’

This is a relativist concept, used to describe individuals or social groups who are the opposite of ‘us’. It is often used in a binary opposition, according to the status of the person who is identifying the difference, so it is frequently used to express the difference between gender, race, nationality, colour etc. In an African film, a white, Western character would represent the ‘other’, for example.

Post-colonialism

Usually a critique of the colonial power implicit in many examples of World cinema, including

Australian, New Zealand and African cinema, for example.

Realism

This complex term (with its origins, as social realism, in literature and fine art) is charged

with a variety of aesthetic and political associations. It is the attempt, in a constructed text, to recreate a sense of reality and believability by the use of technical codes and relationships, values and beliefs. It is also a relative term, as we do not all share the same perception of reality, hence multiple and different realities may be represented. Realism is the dominant mode of representation in all categories and forms of media texts. In La

Haine, for example, a ‘documentary look’ (achieved by hand-held camera, grainy film

stock, natural or naturalistic lighting, and ambient sound) is used in a fictional film to create a heightened sense of immediacy and believability.

Representation (messages and values, ideology)

Closely related to realism, this term refers to the fact that, when shown in the media, all events, people, places are mediated by the media form and its producers – what we watch, read or listen to is not real, but something that stands for, or re-presents, that reality. How these representations are interpreted depends on the audience’s, or spectator’s, view of the world, which in turn is based on their personal ideas, values and beliefs (ideology). Any representation has the power to educate, inform or misinform. In World cinema, self-representation is a key issue: indigenous filmmakers are in the best position to represent their own culture and people most fairly and accurately. National cinemas thus have a crucial role to play in representing a nation and its experience back to its people.

Spectatorship

The consideration of how audiences are ‘positioned’ by the inner workings of the film text. This is of particular interest in World cinema, as the intended indigenous audience can take a very different spectator ‘position’ to an audience beyond the film’s country of origin.

Stars

A signifying system which is open to interpretation across different cultures: a Hollywood star is ‘reappraised’ when appearing in a European film; similarly, British actors enjoy the ‘status’ of stars because of their profile in Hollywood films.

Third cinema

Coined in 1969 by two Argentinian filmmakers, Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. According to them Hollywood is first cinema, European auteurs and art cinema are second cinema. Third cinema consists of films from countries outside the two main dominant sources of international power. It advocates decolonisation of culture through a countercinema,

ie one that subverts, or offers alternatives to, dominant cinema (Hollywood) in the use of film form and representation of ideological perspectives etc.

Third World cinema

This term originally derived from the categorisation of countries according to a world order of power and influence, so that the West was the First World, the East, the Second and the rest, the Third World. In the Cold War, the term was used to describe countries that were not directly aligned with either of the two superpowers, the USA and the former Soviet Union. However, it has also become synonymous with what we now call the countries of the developing world, principally those of the African continent; however, the term ‘World cinema’ is often used in preference to it.

World cinema

World cinema comprises the output of individual national cinemas and frequently is used to describe non-Hollywood films. Present in many national cinemas is the theme of post-colonialism, the revisiting and exploration of a nation’s history, in particular its former relationships with a colonial country, such as Great Britain, France, Portugal etc.