A SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING ABOUT FILMS. Written by Timothy Corrigan, Translated into Persian by Mahsa Razavi. Cheshmeh Publications, Tehran, Iran.
Both an introduction to film study and a practical writing guide, this brief text introduces students to major film theories as well as film terminology, enabling them to write more thoughtfully and critically. With numerous student and professional examples, this engaging and practical guide progresses from taking notes and writing first drafts to create polished essays and comprehensive research projects. Moving from movie reviews to theoretical and critical essays, the text demonstrates how an analysis of a film can become more subtle and rigorous as part of a compositional process.
THE CINEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF REALITY AND AN AESTHETIC OF RESISTANCE IN THE DARDENNE BROTHERS’ CINEMA
As Dudley Andrew shows in his book What Cinema Is!: Bazin’s Quest and Its Charges, Bazin’s aesthetic heritage is “first the pursuit of ‘the real’ beyond representation and mere images; second, a taste for the interaction of reality and imagination in all sorts of genres; and third, a concern for the social consequences of ‘projection,’ both in the circumstances of the exhibition and in the discourse provoked by films” (Andrew, 2011, x). This study explores the Dardenne brothers’ select films in terms of Bazin’s thoughts on cinematic realism. In doing so, my main question shall be: what does it mean for a film to be realistic? How do stylistic choices and thematic concerns work together to create a cinematic reality?
POWER, SEXUALITY, AND INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY IN JEAN-LUC GODARD’S MASCULIN FÉMININ AND MICHEL FOUCAULT’S HISTORY OF SEXUALITY VOL. 1
The article explores the discourses of power, knowledge, and sexuality in Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality Vol. 1, as well as his lectures on “biopolitics” and some selected films of Jean-Luc Godard. It studies Godard’s films, in particular the film Masculin Féminin (1966), in the light of Foucault’s critical study of the history of modernity with a focus on his conceptualization of power as a “complex arrangements of forces in society” (History of Sexuality 90) in relation to the production of knowledge and discourses about sexuality and subjectivity in the modern West under capitalism.
AESTHETIC, POLITICS, AND SELF IN ORSON WELLES’ CULTURAL LEGACY
A study of Welles’ artistic work in relation to his socio-cultural agenda. It examines the way Welles pursues his artistic and social goals through two distinct artistic projects. First the “People’s Theater,” realized by establishing the Mercury Theater, and second through his critical anti-fascist film projects, namely Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil.
“WHEN DOES ART BECOME ART? ASSESSING PIERRE BOURDIEU’S THEORY OF ARTISTIC FIELDS” BY J. LANE, TRANSLATOR: MAHSA RAZAVI. PUBLISHED IN ART QUARTERLY, VOL 78, TEHRAN, 2009.
EXISTENTIALISM IN MODERN CINEMA. WRITER: MAHSA RAZVI. PUBLISHED IN ART QUARTERLY, VOL 75, TEHRAN, 2008.
