2016 | 2
Recent Submissions
- ArticleBeyond Cinematic Stereotypes: Using Religion to Imagine Gender DifferentlySjö, Sofia (2016)In films, religious characters are often gendered in quite traditional ways, but there are some notable exceptions. This article discusses two Scandinavian films that partly break this mold. The analysis illustrates how in films different forms of religion are gendered quite differently, and explores the way in which religious themes can open up for alternative male and female characters. Different ways of understanding the representations are discussed and related to views on the place and role of religion in the Scandinavian context today. The article draws on the mediatization of religion theory as a theoretical framework, but also highlights the challenges that complex images of gender and religion pose to this theory.
- Review
- Review
- ReviewFilm review: Iraqi Odyssey (Samir, IQ/CH/DE/AE 2015)Mäder, Marie-Therese (2016)
- ArticleFilm, Parable, Reciprocity: Frederick Wiseman’s “Reality Fictions” and Social ChangeFaber, Alyda (2016)This essay argues that social criticism may be an effect of Frederick Wiseman's "reality fiction" films only if that effect is understood as analogous to parable, that is, through an awakened responsiveness to the unknown and the unresolved. Here I develop the analogy of Wiseman's films as parable that I begin to consider in an recently published essay "Silence-effects: Frederick Wiseman's films as parables" which explores the idea of parables and Wiseman's films as "silent": disturbing narrative explanation and creating new possibilities of relation, human and animal. The present essay looks at Wiseman's filmic techniques used to intimate these relational possibilities (portraiture and, using Davide Panagia's term, "democratic noise") and contends that his unflinching realism effectively opens up a space of parable with its vision of reciprocity and more-than-reciprocity.
- ArticleIn Search of the Human: The Work of the Dardenne Brothers . EditorialKnauss, Stefanie (2016)
- ArticleLosers, Food, and Sex: Clerical Masculinity in the BBC Sitcom Rev.Ornella, Alexander D. (2016)Clerical masculinities, much like their lay/secular counterparts, often appear unchanging because they are the products of naturalization processes. Clerical masculinities, however, are far from being stable but the live and breathe the dynamics of both their socio-religious context and their secular ‘others’. The BBC sitcom Rev. (2010-2011) is a refreshing take on the everyday life and problems of a vicar in the Church of England trying to avoid stereotypes that often come with clerical roles. Besides its entertainment factor, the sitcom is a valuable site to study the negotiation practices of clerical masculinity in the context of the Church of England. Rev. is not the first and only TV show featuring clerics, but its approach of exploring and inquiring points out that masculinities are never just beneficiaries or performers of power but also subject to power and socio-religious momentums. Uncovering religious negotiation processes of masculinities, Rev. can give an institution that is involved in the ‘production’ of religion a more human face. This paper focuses on the "loser" aspects of the series' male characters, in particular Rev. Adam Smallbone to show that the male characters struggle with fitting in to predefined notions of being a man but at the end of the show learn to appreciate and celebrate their own masculinities.
- ArticleRealistic Humanism: Luc Dardenne as a Philosopher and FilmmakerLesch, Walter (2016)Luc Dardenne is not only a successful filmmaker together with his brother Jean-Pierre. He is also a stimulating philosopher who has reflected on the influence of Emmanuel Levinas on the brothers’ cinematic work. This article shows typical constellations of film and philosophy and focuses on the special contribution of a Levinasian perspective on face-to-face encounters, violence and compassion as central topics in the films of the Dardennes. Luc Dardenne has developed his philosophical approach in his diaries and in the essay The Human Affair published in 2012. This text can be used as a key for the understanding of the film The Kid with a Bike from 2011.
- ArticleReality and Paternity in the Cinema of the DardennesGuanzini, Isabella (2016)The Dardennes’ filmic production aims at restoring the missing link between human beings and the world that have been progressively undermined during the ultimate development of late-capitalist society. This contribution deals with their search for a new contact with reality and a concrete belief in the world, focusing on the theme of body and paternity, in the epoch of their evaporation. In order to rethink the paternal function in a post-political and post-ideological age, however, the Dardennes have had to radically come to terms with its ambiguity and oscillation between abandon and adoption, self-preservation and transmission, forgiveness and revenge. With regard to this ambivalence, this contribution focuses on The Promise and The Son, which represent significant descriptions of what (the body of) a father is capable of, suggesting, at the same time, interruption and filiation as possible experiences for a new beginning.
- ArticleVisionary Critique: Gender, Self and Relationship in Rosetta and Two Days, One NightKnauss, Stefanie (2016)The films of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne stand out for their complex, multi-dimensional female and male characters whose representation disrupts gender stereotypes in numerous ways, both in how the characters themselves are depicted and how they are shown to relate to other individuals and their social context. In this contribution, I will explore the themes of self, relationship, solidarity, family and work – all of them recurring issues in the films by the Dardennes – using gender as my primary category of analysis, and focusing in particular on the treatment of these themes in Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, FR/BE 1999) and Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, BE/FR/IT 2014). I will argue that whereas Rosetta offers a critique of the damaging effects of the masculinized capitalist system on individuals and their relationships, Two Days, One Night can be understood as a vision of alternative possibilities of solidarity and women’s empowerment and agency even within the persistent context of masculinized capitalism.