Questions for Willemen, "The National Revisited"
1. On page 36 Willemen says: 'The issue of national cinema is then primarily a question of address, rather than a matter of the filmmaker's citizenship or even of the production finance's country or origin." Explain what means by "address" in this context.
2. Explain the Bakhtinian concept of "creative understanding" outlined by Willemen. How does it help us to position ourselves in relation to foreign cultures?
2. Explain the Bakhtinian concept of "creative understanding" outlined by Willemen. How does it help us to position ourselves in relation to foreign cultures?
posted by Ana Lopez at
10:15 AM
1 Comments:
Willemen, obsessed with a sort of exactness probably necessary in the higher realms of academia, requires that we think about where a film going rather than where a film is from. That is because for any given production, it is near impossible to keep out foreign capital or technicians. Therefore, 'address' means that the movie is prepared for his specific third form of interpretation, ones that purport to deal exclusively to deal with whatever is being called the national identity this week. This is in opposition to what WIllemen considers the Hollywood hegemonic position, that in his opinion, tries to broaden its appeal to gain entry into the hearts and pocketbooks of the world.
Creative understanding is how, from without, one understands this kind of address, one that specifically involves this attempt at a brass ring national zeitgeist. The other two modes of interpreting national cinema on an international level seem to imply either broad cartoon imperialism, where all else pales in comparison with your national tenor, or that grand sort of caring man's fascism, where the quality is unimportant as long as it held water with said national audience. Creative understanding takes both the culture of the film, the culture from which you're viewing it it, and, why not, any cultures that you just happen to have lying around. There, you probe the choices that are inherent in their culture and compare them to the choices that would be made in this one. This hopefully should lead to some, maybe, understanding.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home