YEAR 7 Issue 16 July-December 2011
CINEMASCOPE independent F i l m journal
CALL FOR PAPER For Issue 16, July-December 2011
subversion of the power structures, with the role of urban spaces and the impact on the human level (the transformation of thoughts and emotions, of actions and bodies).
Landscape of Revolt In his fundamental text titled “Montage 1937”, Sergej Eisenstein proposes the distinction between what he defines “depiction” and “image” drawing from an example of mise-en-cadre, a shot depicting a barricade: “if a grouping of objects aims to depict a barricade, then their disposition should be such as that their overall contours indicate an intrinsic, generalised image of what a barricade implies: struggle”. In other words, according to Eisenstein the sum of all the compositional elements of the barricade should be read as an image of struggle, i.e. as a generalized image of the inner content of what is depicted. In the case of the barricade, in order to ensure the transition from the object depicted to the essence of the object, the things usually put on the top – for instance the bakery sign – will be turned upside down. Such famous example is absolutely fitting to begin a reflexion on how movies propose an image of the revolt: struggles, revolutions, rebellions, social disorders, furnished many times an extraordinary narrative repertoire and a gaze inside the problems of our society. In its next issue Cinemascope wants to examine the cinematic representation of the revolt, with its political, social and human consequences. Considering the multiple nuances of revolts projected on the screen, we welcome contributions that seek to deal with the
Topics Possible topics include but are not restricted to: -‐ Epic Images of Revolt The classical mode of representation of the revolt is probably the epic one: in this case the movie stresses the grandeur of a nation, leader’s courage or more simply the experience of important social disorders told by a witness despite himself, with a narrative structure frequently based on two opposing fronts fighting on the barricades. In its epic version on the screen, the revolt turns into a choreography of actions that move the events, a background for characters’ vicissitudes and an opportunity of making concrete some ideals. Behind these complex architectures is possible to recognize a series of mise-en-scène and storytelling techniques that can evolve depending on genres, periods and authors. -‐ Urban Landscape as Place of Revolt Urban landscapes are the principal background upon which revolts explode, beginning from that form of obsession for the distance to make accessible, or starting from that type of ostentation of different realities that cohabit in the same place. Even if we could identify a 1
YEAR 7 Issue 16 July-December 2011
CINEMASCOPE independent F i l m journal
necessity of suppression in the urbanity structure of the European metropolis, as the Haussmann Paris’ model, where the compressed roads of the ancient medieval city facilitated popular insurrections. Cinema represents in many circumstances the metropolis as place of revolt: on the screen the subversion of the established order brings out how urban is in all folds of our life, from the smell of our bodies to the children and adults’ recreational and professional mores. Observing the world from on high, the city as explicit configurative act doesn’t exist anymore; at its place there is an impulsive distribution of realty that makes obsolete the concept of megalopolis, replacing it with an informal model of metropolitan area. Through the tale of the revolt the movies give us an unexpected gaze on the urban reality, the subversion brings out the total absence of a political valuation of the daily events, from the system of primary services to the number of poors which are aimlessly through the streets. The cinematic insurrection images remember us that the events in these urban spaces have to be considered as a morphogenetic factor, as the condition that will create new forms. Any try to modify the life’s material rules – point of start of each revolution – put in a risk the monopolistic concentration of the order and the violence, on which only a so complex reality lives.
individual was a product of power’s relationships, in his new condition he has to build ex novo the constellation of his references and, in a few words, new power relationships. This has a consequence on acting: both in space delimitation and in everyday life the relation of his world changes. What happens if a man, a body, from being a subjugated body becomes a freed body? Perhaps, the body dominated by the power is, par excellence, the body of the “mass” whereas the liberated body is simply an individual which must restart from the singularity to define his daily life? Perhaps the consequences of a revolt or of a subversion of a status quo release man from the mass returning him the concreteness of a fresh primitive man? Not often easily, after a revolution, the man/body finds the stability. Cinemascope.it wants to reflect the ways in which cinema has represented this reconstruction, that, essentially, is simply a research of new power relations better than those of the past. Images of Revolt in Other Media By this topic Cinemascope.it would invite to reflect about the influence that the “means” of diffusion has on the audiovisual materials (documentary, fiction or amateur movies) narrating conflicts and revolutions. That is, how, through TV, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or other social networks the “message” is communicated, converted or redirected. Is it possible that, in an uninterrupted fluxus of communication, values, themes, figures, of these audiovisual texts, are subjected to unexpected mutations?
-‐ Consequences of the Revolt When, at the end of a conflict, suddenly the previous life is deleted, individuals and groups discover new ways to think and to act. It is another humanity that comes out, a new humanity which reveals its weaknesses, but its strong points too. If, in his preceding life, 2
YEAR 7 Issue 16 July-December 2011
CINEMASCOPE independent F i l m journal
Probably this stream subverts the borders of the relationships between who watches and who is watched, who narrates and what is narrated. It is possible to do a similar discourse about the territory where the events happen: which is it? Is it in the place where those events really happen or is it the “new� real the place of the telematic relationships?
DEADLINES Proposals: June 12, 2011 Communication from Cinemascope.it: June 20, 2011 Submission of articles: July 20, 2011 INFO Please, send your proposals to: info@cinemascope.it Max length of articles: max 5000 words Abstract: 150 words Language: English
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