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Globalization and Film Style: An Introductory Note
Andrew Dix
“Do you want this world left on?”: Global Imaginaries
in the Films of Michael Winterbottom
James Udden
Child of the Long Take: Alfonso Cuaron’s Film Aesthetics
in the Shadow of Globalization
Whitney Crothers Dilley
Globalization and Cultural Identity in the Films
of Ang Lee
Raechel Dumas
Kung Fu Production for Global Consumption: The Depoliticization
of Kung Fu in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle
Amir Cohen-Shalev
Beyond Reconciliation: Filial Relationship
as a Lifelong Developmental Theme in Bergman’s Films
This special issue addresses the relationship between globalization and film, paying particular attention — in light of the journal’s core interests — to issues of style. The topic is important because, as the current global financial meltdown illustrates all too poignantly, we are deeply and inextricably invested in the realities (and illusions) of globalization. This investment is not just economic and political, it is social and cultural as well. Film has long been both an agent and a critic of this development, and occupies a central place within the techno-informational “space of flows” that sociologist Manuel Castells has identified as the “dominant manifestation of power and function” (409) in globalized (and globalizing) societies. Yet, the entanglements between globalization and film have only begun to attract serious critical attention relatively recently, and the stylistic dimensions of that relationship remain surprisingly under-examined.
This special issue seeks to energize the emerging groundswell of work on globalization and film that is happening right now in scholarly publishing and, increasingly, in classrooms across the humanities and social sciences. Together, the four essays published here offer a range of fresh perspectives on the varied ways in which film has contributed to the emergence of a “global imaginary” within — and beyond — cinema culture. The essays also consider how globalization, as both a process and a condition, has reshaped the aesthetics, the thematics, and, crucially, the stylistics of contemporary filmmaking across different geographic and cultural contexts spanning Asia, Britain, and the United States.
It should be noted, however, that the topic of globalization and film
cannot be fully addressed in one journal issue. Nor should such a project
be attempted. My aim in editing this issue, therefore, has not been to
deliver a comprehensive survey of the field, nor even to define and delineate
that field. Rather, my aim has been to stage an eclectic critical intervention
that extends existing scholarship while simultaneously suggesting possible
new avenues of enquiry. My hope is that the following essays by Whitney
Dilley, Andrew Dix, Raechel Dumas, and James Udden will elicit reactions,
encourage intellectual exchange, and spark some debate. For this
reason, I encourage readers to contact me and the authors with their thoughts
and responses. Let this be the beginning of a vigorous conversation — to
be continued in a future issue of Style — about the peculiar co-minglings
of an artform and a world-historical moment that increasingly touch all
of our lives.
Andrew Dix. “‘Do you want this world left on?’:
Global Imaginaries in the Films of Michael Winterbottom” / 3
This article reads the stylistics of films by Michael Winterbottom
in the light of several models of globalization. The first section assesses
how Winterbottom’s mise-en-scène itself generates mappings of the
current globalized world that have both progressive and reactionary valencies.
The next section adjusts the formalist focus to soundtrack, and explores
the implications of use of a globally diffuse music — and multilingual
dialogue — in these films. Finally, the article reviews the adequacy of
Winterbottom’s cross-cutting as an editing response to the multiplicities
and inequalities of contemporary globalization.
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James Udden. “Child of the Long Take: Alfonso
Cuaron’s Film Aesthetics in the Shadow of Globalization.” / 26
Alfonso Cuaron’s 2006 film, Children of Men, not only suggests that
the economic pressures on contemporary Hollywood directors differ little
from those in the studio era, it also suggests that film style in the age
of globalization is not as homogenized as many fear. The long take is the
most prominent feature in Children of Men, including many which are digitally
contrived. Lofty reasons by the filmmakers are given for these long takes,
but there are more pedestrian reasons behind this. Other examples past
and present suggest that often the long take serves the needs of both filmmakers
and their producers, at least for awhile. Cuaron himself paid his dues
over the years with more generic films, and is now making a bold auteurist
declaration with these long takes. The question remains whether the economics
of Hollywood will allow him to continue.
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Whitney Crothers Dilley. “Globalization and
Cultural Identity in the Films of Ang Lee.” / 45
While each of Ang Lee’s ten films in his remarkably diverse body of
work reflects his interest in the topic of cultural identity and exchange
in the face of increasingly rapid globalization, three of Ang Lee’s works,
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), The Ice Storm (1997), and Lust, Caution (2007),
are particularly clear examples of this phenomenon. Theorists such
as Anthony Giddens (1990), Malcolm Waters (1995), and Arjun Appadurai (1996)
have long considered the synthesis of cultures through the process of globalization
and its effect on identity, nationalism, narrative, and ethnicity.
In 2007, Ang Lee’s film Lust, Caution presented the elegant world of 1940’s
“Golden Age” Shanghai while also referencing western film noir culture
through films such as Suspicion (1941). At the same time, Lee’s earlier
films The Ice Storm and Eat Drink Man Woman reflect his preoccupation with
universal codes of duty and family, and the increasing cost of modernity
and globalization on the traditional values of the past.
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Rachael Dumas. “Kung Fu Production for Global
Consumption: The Depoliticization of Kung Fu in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu
Hustle.” / 66
For the West, the question of Hong Kong identity is inextricably bound
to images that have been largely constructed by directors, stars, and fans
of Hong Kong cinema throughout the region’s filmic history. Hong Kong’s
oldest genre, the martial arts film, is of particular significance, as
it constitutes not only the earliest genre particular to Hong Kong, but
also the most frequently revived. This essay explores the history and politics
of kung fu cinema and its local and international fan base from wuxia to
present day, ultimately examining Stephen Chow’s recent award-winning film
Kung Fu Hustle in order to explore the impacts of globalization on both
local film production and international perceptions of Chineseness.
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Amir Cohen-Shalev. “Beyond Reconciliation:
Filial relationship as a lifelong developmental theme in Bergman’s films.”
/ 87
This article offers an integrative, developmental reading of a major
theme in Bergman’s lifelong cinematic work, namely filial relationships,
particularly father-child relations. By examining Bergman’s films from
a life-span developmental perspective, I show how the basic conflict is
represented and reconstructed in a cumulatively evolving manner, reflecting
a correlation of style and age. The analysis focuses on three films, each
epitomizing a different age-related style, that center on filial relationships:
Wild Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander and Saraband. While the early and
middle phases demonstrate the possibility of filial reconciliation in the
form of personal life-review (Wild Strawberries) or mutual empathy (Fanny
and Alexander), the late phase emphasizes bare feelings and unadorned,
painful honesty, characteristic of the old-age style of the octogenarian
Bergman. I conclude by discussing the dialectics of the three films/phases
as representing a shift from psychological ego-integrity and life review
(Wild Strawberries) through anthropological bricolage (Fanny and Alexander)
to sociological disengagement (Saraband).
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