icem issue n° 3
TRANSCRIPT
[1]
INTE
RNAT
IONA
L CIN
EMAT
ICOctober 2012
The Representation of Foreigners in European
Cinema
Issue N° 3
Contact us: [email protected]
International Cinematic E-Magazine
[2]
2012 ¢SQÉ`e - ôjGÈa / CINE MAG2
2012 ¢SQÉ`e - ôjGÈa / CINE MAG3
2012 ¢SQÉ`e - ôjGÈa / CINE MAG2
2012 ¢SQÉ`e - ôjGÈa / CINE MAG3
[3]
ICEM• • •
Cinema is like holding mirrors to societies as it turns them into stereographic spaces where a wide range of roads are often left untraveled yet. Hence, studying cinemas of different countries and continents results in having windows of various types opened on different cultures and civilizations.
Run by a host of Moroccan student r e s e a r c h e r s b e i n g i n t e r e s t e d i n Cinematographic and Film Studies, International Cinematic E-Magazine (ICEM) is a quarterly E-Magazine; open to all the World Cinemas and different Schools of thought. Each Newsletter will be dedicated to a particular cinema.
The ultimate goal has been to create a virtual space where ink can be spilt from different walks of thought and analyses in approaching the World Cinemas. Being ambitious enough, Seminars, Study Days and other academic meetings and activities will be held with the aim of bringing together critics, film-makers, researchers, actors, actresses among many others to ponder over issues related to Cinema and Film-industry .Different national and international Festivals shall be covered. New films will be reviewed as well.
New contributors and commentators are invited to have their say on I.C.E.M.
For further information, please contact us at: [email protected]
International Cinematic E-Magazine
1. Foreword : Dr. Laura HILLS
2. Social Reality and Communism in ‘The World is Big Salvasion Lurks Around the Corner’
3. The Academy Awards (The Oscars)
4. A Review of ‘‘Intouchables’’-Post Racial or Psychobabble. You Decide.
5. Curtus’ ‘Casablance’ between European and American Orientalisms
6. The Victim Mentality of Immigrants in Europe: Turkish in Germany
7. Luchino Visconti’s Stranger in Alger
8. Effective Children in War Italian Cinema
9. ‘’ Unconventional Expressions of Temporality in Films of Federico Fellini’’
10. Visual Arguments: The Representation of Mixed Marriages in European Cinema
INTERNATIONAL CINEMATIC E-MAGAZINE Do not hesitate to contact us :
[4]
ForewordLEARNING ABOUT AMERICANS THROUGH
EUROPEAN FILM
INTERNATIONAL CINEMATIC E-MAGAZINE
Dr. Laura Hills is the president of Blue Pencil Institute and serves as the Research Fellow
for Academic Development at Virginia International University
in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Dr. Hills invites you to follow her on Twitter @DrLauraHills, to like her company on Facebook at Blue Pencil Institute, and to read
her blog, Blue Pencil Sharpener™ at
www.bluepencilinstitute.com/blog. Check out her latest book, Climbing Out of a Rut: Four Steps
and 101 Secrets to Supercharging Your Career and Finding Greater Fulfillment and Reward in What You Do Every Day on the Blue Pencil Institute
website at www.bluepencilinstitute.com.
When we travel abroad, we have an
opportunity to examine our own
customs, beliefs, and assumptions
through a foreign lens. I suppose that
that is part of what attracted me years
ago to teaching students from all
around the world. I like learning about
other cultures. But I also like seeing my
American self through foreign eyes.
Similarly, I have always enjoyed
opportunities to experience America
through the lens of foreign cinema.
One film in particular that changed
my view of what is American is Schultze
Gets the Blues, a German film from 2003
written and directed by Michael
Schorr. The film centers around
Schultze (Horst Krause), a bulky,
l o n e l y, m i d d l e - a g e d G e r m a n
accordionist whose lust for life is
renewed after hearing an American
Cajun zydeco accordion performance
on the radio. The problem is that in
the small town in Germany where
Schultze lives, everyone expects him to
play tradit ional polkas on his
accordion. In fact, playing any other
kind of accordion music seems strange
and jarring to Schultze’s family and
friends. Schultze feels misunderstood
and eventually sets out on a lone
journey in search of American zydeco
music. He ends up in the United
States, first in Texas. However, the
music he encounters there is not quite
what he’s looking for. Schultze must go
further and deeper into the country to
find the zydeco music he seeks. His
journey ultimately brings him to the
more remote areas of the Louisiana
bayou country where at last he finds
other musicians who share his passion
[5]
America is a vast nation with many
cultures, regional accents, cuisines, and
musical styles. I have lived mostly in
major metropolitan areas. I have never
been in the Louisiana bayous. What
stands out to me from Schultze Gets the
Blues is not how foreign Schultze’s
German town and its polka music
seem to me. That’s to be expected.
Rather, what stands out is how foreign
the Louisiana bayou and zydeco
music seem. The people from that
region of the United States speak a
version of the English language that is
barely recognizable to me as English.
Their dancing, socializing, and overall
culture are absolutely foreign to me.
And yet, they are American. I wonder
if the German audiences watching
Schultze Gets the Blues believe that the
culture of the Louisiana bayou is my
America. In other words, if they met
me, would they think that the
language and the zydeco music
depicted in the film speak to my
experience as an American. If so,
nothing could be further from the
truth. The Louisiana bayou is as
foreign to me as it is to them.
Shultze Gets the Blues showed me a part
of America that I didn’t know. There’s
something to be learned from that. A
filmmaker from another land is in an
excellent position to see what is
different and interesting in us –
sometimes even more so than we are
able to see what is different and
interesting in ourselves.
INTERNATIONAL CINEMATIC E-MAGAZINE
INTERNATIONAL CINEMATIC E-MAGAZINE
[6]
[7]
The year is 2007. The country
Germany. A young man awakens in
a hospital bed with no memory of
his identity or his whereabouts. By
his bedside sits an old and friendly,
but unfamiliar face. Sashko, the
patient, has been in a car accident
and suffers from amnesia. His
grandfather, Bai Dan, hearing upon
the loss of his son and daughter-in-
law in the crash, travels to Germany
to console the boy and help him
construct the memories of his life.
The two set off on a cycling journey
through the beautiful scenery of the
Balkans and among interlocking
flashbacks, through the past.
This is the plot of the 2008
Bulgarian film 'The World is Big
and Salvation Lurks Around the
Corner'. A film much praised for its
portrayal of the social reality in
Bulgaria and the Balkans in the
1980s, and equally criticised for this
particular attribute. A film equally
understood and misunderstood by
its audience, claimed to be realistic
and accurate by some, and overly
exaggerated by others. But the
Kusturica-vibe film resonates with
the viewers who have experienced
communist reality either first hand
or through the memories and stories
of others, without creating yet
another post-totalitarian film from
the Balkans.
As Berlin and Germany were
physically divided by a concrete
wall of 140 kilometres length and 3
metres height, so was the European
world disunited by a metaphorical
barrier – the Iron Curtain,
separating the countries in the East
and West and symbolising the
ideological conflict between the two
sides: the Soviet-dominated Eastern
Europe and the democratic West.
Foreigners became those 'on the
other side' – two groups of people
w h o b o r e n o p a r t i c u l a r
differentiating markers, but were
unable to understand each other.
And despite the fall of the Berlin
Wall and dissolution of the Iron
Curtain, despite the attempts, hopes
and aspirations for equality on the
European continent, division still
lingers in the air and the new
generations remain fundamentally
foreign – by the burden of social
memory and shared history which
binds together the countries of the
Eastern bloc.
'
Social Reality and Communism in ‘The World is Big Salvation Lurks Around the Corner’
Antoniya Petkova
[8]
There is nothing really spectacular
about 'The World is Big...'. Adapting
Bulgar ian-Ger man author I l i ja
Trojanow's autobiographical novel of
the same name, the film slowly
constructs the touching story of a lost
boy in search of his identity, aided on
his journey by a friendly, warm and
optimistic grandfather – the type of
man full of wisdom and serenity that
are borne out of the combination of
age and surpassing the hardships of
life; the type of smiling stubborn
sarcastic grandfather who embodies the
mentality of the Balkans: to draw
lessons from life's obstacles and derive
joy from the smallest of victories. The
beautiful cinematography and visuals
reflect the serene and innocent beauty
of the Balkan nature and create the
opportunity for one to comprehend the
division of West and East through the
images of concrete against pure nature.
And last but not least, the film
comments on the communist reality
and absurdities in Bulgaria in the 1980s
– similar to the reality of much of the
countries in Eastern Europe – in a very
honest, frank and adequate manner, so
much so that the film only remains
realistic and plausible to its viewers on
the East side of the continent.
To see this film for its true value is
unlikely, or even impossible, for a
foreign audience, as it is the
emotional value of 'The World is
Big..' that resonates with the viewer
– from the description of the life
and mentality of the people in the
Eastern bloc, to the adequate and
accurate portrayal of facts and
stories from the 1980s to the
present. The film's true power lies in
the representation of currently
existing ideas and aspirations: 'The
World is Big...' talks about the hope
of finding something better, which
resonates with the painful Eastern
European reality, where even today
a vast number of people abandon
their homes, lives and families in
search of a better life in the West.
It is this emotional value that
allows one to forgive the director for
resorting to a few exaggerations, as
they amplify the ideas conveyed,
without becoming the focus of the
story: these details are skilfully
utilised to form the foundation of
the film and tell the story of the
search for personal happiness on
top of the layers of social reality.
Just like the social memory and
historical heritage construct the
canvases on which lives are then
drawn and while the layers of
charcoal and paint might be the
same, if one does not see the
difference between the material
used to create the human painting,
t h e E a s t a n d We s t r e m a i n
fundamentally foreign.
Somewhere in the Balkans, where
Europe ends but never starts' – this
narrated sentence sets the voice of
the film. A sentence which Western
audiences would be at a loss with,
but a sentence which – albeit
possibly not dissected word for word
– instantly pulls a string in the heart
o f t h e E a s t e r n E u r o p e a n .
Attempting to fully explain the
socialist reality and life behind the
Iron Curtain – where governments
spied on their citizens and one
could not refuse to become an
informant on their closest ones
w i t h o u t b e a r i n g s e r i o u s
c o n s e q u e n c e s – w o u l d b e
impossible, as it would render the
film overly complicated, boring,
detailed and will immediately make
it easy prey for harsh accusations of
c l i ché , v i l la in i sat ion o f the
totalitarian leadership, and lack of
originality. Yet by avoiding those
mundane explanations, the film falls
victim to another string of attacks –
from those who cannot truly
understand and thus cannot see
appreciate it.
[9]
2009lorem ipsum dolor met set quam nunc parum
The Academy Awards (The Oscars)
We’ve all heard of the Oscars,
and a lot of us tune in once a year to root for our favourite films, but how did it all
start?
Well, The Oscars is an informal name
for The Academy Awards; a set of awards
for cinematic achievement first held in
1929 at the Rooseve l t Hote l in
Hollywood. It was founded by an
organization called the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(AMPAS), which was conceived by Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer studio executive Louis B.
Mayer. The awards were then initiated by
the Academy to award industry
pract i t ioners for their c inematic
achievement.
The Academy Awards are now televised
live in more than 100 countries every
year, and it has been the model for many
other awards ceremonies including the
Emmy and Tony Awards.
The first ever Academy Awards were
given on the 16th of May 1929 in front of
a small audience of around 270 people.
Films are voted for by a voting
membership of over 5,000 people. The
membership is divided into different
branches, each one representing a
different discipline in film production.
To become a member, the board of
governors must invite people to join, and
member eligibility is achieved either by
nominat ion, or another member
submitting a name based on the persons
significant contribution to the film
industry. In late December, before the
awards, ballot papers and copies of the
Reminder List of Eligible Releases are
sent to members, who then vote to
determine nominees. However it was
announced in 2011 that the Academy
would be implementing an online voting
system in 2013.
There are many rules with regards to
nominating and voting. For example, a
film must open in the previous calendar
year, between midnight at the start of the
1st of January to midnight at the end of
the 31st o f December. Any film
nominated must be feature length (40
minutes or more) to qualify, except for any
awards defined as being specifically for
short films.
The question is, however, is the Oscars
relevant today? It has failed many
attempts to entice a younger audience in
recent years, and still maintains the “us
and them” divide. It has been observed
that perhaps Oscar nominations are a
turn-off for filmgoers, with nominations
from last year like The Artist and War
Horse making less at the box office than
one would imagine. The term “Oscar
nominated” does often make young
people turn their noses up, assuming the
film will be pompous and overrated.
Perhaps the Academy Awards have had
their time.
.
Natasha HarmerE-mail: [email protected]
International Cinematic E-Magazine
International Cinematic E-Magazine
[10]
[11]
I N T E R N A T I O N A L C I N E M A T I C E - M A G A Z I N E
i ssu
e 3
A Review of ‘’ Intouchables ‘’ - Post Racial Pablum or Psychobabble. You Decide.
MS . BIBI GASTON
e-mail: [email protected]
What could be more entertaining than spending
an hour or two immersed in the light and lively tale
of an unlikely “Odd Couple?” “Intouchables” is
the story of the relationship between a smiling,
tetraplegic white billionaire (Francois Cluzet), and
his home healthcare aide, a charismatic black
Parisian of Senegalese origin (played by Omar Sy).
Philippe is rich, very rich, having sold champagne
for a living until one day he is injured in a
paragliding accident. Released from prison for
robbing a jewelry store, Driss, is kicked out of his
extended family’s overcrowded apartment in a
desperate Paris banlieu named Berlioz, and is
selected by Philip out of a line of tiresome,
obfuscating white candidates for a caretaking
position. Driss lands in Philippe’s Cinderella-like
circumstances while attempting to qualify for
welfare. Let the games begin.
Philippe’s physical pain is considerable, but not
to be outdone by bouts of mental anguish at not
being able to leave his elegantly-appointed
apartment of high-ceilinged drawing salons and
halls where all the oxygen has been sucked out of
the rooms by pitying and pitiful assistants. The only
air brought back in is by the gardener in the form
of beets and radishes. Philippe is bored out of his
skin he cannot feel, and exasperated by a body that
he cannot control. He is desperate to live fully
despite the circumstances.
inte
rnat
iona
l Ci
nem
atic
E-M
agaz
ine
[12]
Enter Driss, the most unlikely
candidate for a home healthcare
worker on the planet whose
outrageous behavior bestows life to
Philippe and energy to the film.
Driss has a criminal background,
smokes copious pot. His professional
references are “Earth, Wind and
Fire, and Kool and the Gang.” He
hits on every woman in Philippe’s
household. Driss is assigned to a
king-sized bedroom with a white-
wigged French aristocrat in a gilt-
edged frame staring down at him,
an apartment-sized bathroom with a
lavish free standing tub, and soon
enough, a central role in Philippe’s
personal life.
Some contend that Intouchables
reinforces racial and cultural
stereotypes. Arguably true. Viewing
the film through a racial lens, one
might dismiss it altogether. But
Intouchables does not take on the
challenge of solving interracial
harmony as much as it tries to drill
d o w n i n t o t h e m y s t e r y o f
motivation. It inhabits a breezy
place, a comfortable if not shallow
place, where the meeting and
m a t c h i n g o f d i f f e r e n t
temperaments, personalities and
characters is less troublesome, but
perhaps more compelling, than
race. A film that attempts to be
more Barak Obama than Martin
Luther King, (i.e. “post racial,”)
Intouchables is, in the end,
entertainment that banks on the
outrageousness of Driss and the
intractabi l i ty of Phi l ippe as
characters. Well drawn, edited,
acted, and cast, the screenplay
allows us to lower the landing gear,
touch down in difficult territory, get
out, wander around, and drink from
the waters of possibility.
Philippe wants no pity. Driss refuses
to be a voiceless house servant or a
victim. He demands to be treated as
an equal and quickly takes on a
powerful, intimate role in Philippe’s
life, and vice versa. Driss’s may be
seen as a stereotypical character and
if not for his personality, he would
be. But both men share their
d e e p e s t h e l d s e c r e t s a n d
vulnerabilities with one another.
With the lightest touch, and with the
engine of Driss’s humor and good
looks, Intouchables provides us with
a tiny keyhole through which we
might peer into another world, a
land of at least temporary if not
fleeting détente between ourselves
and the “other.” Driss and Philippe
share a passionate camaraderie, and
through one another, begin to
imagine the depths of despair that,
at times, afflict each of us.
With a push or a shove in a more
challenging direction, Intouchables
might have become a parable. But it
is not a brave film nor is it
groundbreaking. It is made for
Western audiences that yearn for
comfortable answers to intractable
moral dilemmas. Being post-racial
means inhabiting an ahistorical
middle ground, transcending
tedious conversations about race,
asserting progress, and leaving the
room where no one is quite certain
what was said.
[13]
2009lorem ipsum dolor met set quam nunc parum
MR. BENAZIZ MOHAMED
Ghandi once said “The United States of America is powerful because of both: Hollywood and the Central Intelligence Agency CIA.“
With the programmation of the Film
“ My Name is Khan “ in Jamaa Lafna
square in conjuction with the showing of
the Film “The She-Lover of Rif “, the
fourth film produced by Narjis Anajar,
a t t h e c o n f e re n c e Pa l a c e, t h e
I n t e r n a t i o n a l F i l m Fe s t i va l o f
Marrakech marked its inaugural
opening in two ways: official and
popular .
At the popular level, the Indian actor
Charu Khan moved to Jamaa Lafna
square where he was given a warm
reception .This was obviously manifest
in the way the audience interacted with
him and showed the extent of the
influence of the Indian cinema on the
audience.
Images speak louder than news. In an
interview On Aljazeera , the senior
Egyptian journalist Mohamed Hasanin
Haikal said that the Indian leader
Mahatma Ghandi once told him, “The
United States of America is powerful
because of both: Hollywood and the
Central Intelligence Agency CIA.“ This
statement showed the extent of the
Indian great leader’s awareness of the
role of the Film industry in the political
influence of states. This awareness made
for the appearance of Bollywood, which
made India more known worldwide. It is
true that resources are not the same, but
imagination is worth more than the
Dollar.
The evidence is the fact that Bollywood
has competed Hollywood for a long
period of time in many film markets.
“My Name is Khan” ranked among the
widely seen films seen in many Western
countries.
In Morocco, Indian films have also
enjoyed a big number of spectators
either when the number of the tickets
sold in cinema halls reached 40 million
tickets annually, or now thanks to/
because of piracy. The Indian cinema
forum took part in the warm reception
of Charu Khan. As such, Indian
Cinema has contributed strongly to
shaping the conscience of the Moroccan
youth for several decades. In fact, there
were halls that used to show only
Indian and Karate films. But, it was only
the Indian film which succeeded in
impacting the sentiments of the youth.
This is why Amitabachan and later
Charukhan were both welcomed
warmly in Marrakech.
Why Has the Indian Cinema Emotionally Attracted the Moroccan Spectator ?
[14]
All this is justified by the fact that the Indian film is marked by the following characteristics:
1 – An understandable story that
consists of no complications – a popular
story with overflowing emotions, and this
is due to the accumulation of an ancient
oral narrative heritage, from which the
stories of Kalila Wa Dimna originally
stemmed and which were translated from
Indian into Persian then Arabic. By all
means, the film is in particular a
narration.
2 – A story that consists of both
romance and revenge. Romance in the
field, not in bed, and this is compatible
with public abashment.
3 – A functional direction in that the
director is more concerned with
narrat ing and making the story
understandable than playing with the
camera and creating new frames. The
director alternates between big frames of
faces and general frames focusing on the
green scenery in the fields of sunflowers.
4 – Shooting in spaces that would
encourage the spectators to travel to
India after watching its movies.
5 – A clear-cut characterization based
on the distinction between good
characters and evil ones to the extent
that it looks sometimes simplistic. This
helps the viewers differentiate between
just and unjust figures and satisfies their
expectations of true justice.
6 – Songs and dances are so designed as
to serve the story and show the contact
between the hero and the heroine.
7– Very attractive and handsome actors
who the eye enjoys watching and
interacting with. In the cinema, “beauty
“is considered as a principal standard for
the standing of the actor before the
camera. The eyes of the audience love
“beauty “
8 – A romantic and unshakeable assured
view of the world. Good is among people
everywhere in the world, and we need
only to look for.
9 – A dream that comes true as well as
happy endings. This allows spectators to
see their dreams, unfulfilled in reality,
come true in films.
10 – A film of entertainment, thanks to
the movements and dances performed by
graceful bodies.
11 – A profound respect for collective
conscience as well as other cultures.
Thanks to these characteristics, the
Indian Cinema has impressively achieved
success that about fifty thousand people
gathered in Jamaa Lafna square to greet
Charu Khan.
Proof-reader of the text:
Mr. BELBACHA MohamedTRANSLATED BY: MR. KALLOUCH BRAHIM
[15]
Tariq Bouguerbae-mail: [email protected]
nnn
Casablanca (1942) is a film of an
unproduced stage play called Everybody
comes to Rick’s. The film at hand reflects
the strategic rhetorics of American
global hegemony and translates à là
lettre America’s dealing with the Orient
and more specifically Morocco.
Initially, I would explore the notion of
Orientalism in both its European and
American versions.
My reading of Michael Curtiz’s
film begins with Edward Said’s seminal
and critical concept, Orientalism,
which he defines as a dynamic״
exchange between individual authors
and the large political concerns shaped
by the three great empires –British,
Fr e n c h , A m e r i c a n - i n w h o s e
intellectual and imaginative territory
the writing was produced”.1
Curtiz’s film betrays exactly
the strategies the West uses to first
define itself and ultimately control and
produce the Orient. It also presents a
myriad of dreams, images and
vocabularies available to anyone who
has tried to talk about what lies east of
the dividing line.2 Orientalism is
thereby ״the generic term״ that Said
has employed to describe the western
approach to the Orient. The film is
therefore closely affiliated to the
discourse of “European superiority
over Oriental backwardness”. This
relationship, as Said suggests, is a
“relationship of power, of domination,
of varying degrees of complex
hegemony”.3
I fully endorse Said’s lopsided
findings in so far as the film translates
verbatim “the unified character of
Western discourse”, to borrow Sara
Mills’s phrase.4 I also deem it
appropriate to take up a ‘contrapuntal’
reading – as designated by Edward
Said- to look back at Casablanca and the
rherorics of what I would call the ‘non-
territorial empire’ that infuses it, to
deconstruct the structure it forms to
gear the mechanisms of narration and
representation of this very cultural
other.
However, Said has been
castigated for his lopsided version of
Orientalism as “an authoritative,
coherent, monolithic, one-sided
collective system of body of ideas”.
Such criticism was largely led by
Ahmed Aijaz, Denis Porter and Robert
Young. Others, whose criticism of the
Saidian model has been unduly harsh,
are Homi Bhabha, Spivak and Sara
Mills. They maintain that Said’s work
offers no alternative reading of western
texts. His approach, inconsistent as it is,
creates an Oriental (Moroccan in our
case) who is oftentimes inferior to the
occidental.
CURTIS’ ‘CASABLANCA’ BETWEEN
EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN ORIENTALISMS
[16]
Porter argues that Said’s methodological shortcoming resides in his neglect of counter plots that flow into the Orientalist
texts; plots that play off and struggle against major plots. 5 In the absence of a counter-plot, Porter posits three alternatives to the
Saidian model of Orientalism. For him, Orientalist texts are heterogeneous in nature and not homogenous as Said claims. There
often exists an alternative writing (filming in our case) within the western tradition. Casablanca is such an alternative writing
according to some American critics. The third asset Porter attributes to Western texts is that it would be very possible to consider
a textual dialogue between the Occident and the Orient.6
American Orientalism appears to be a valuable analytical paradigm in my approach to Casablanca, in so far as it claims some
shift in the rite of narrating and representing the Other. In his book, Morocco Bound: Disorienting America’s Maghreb, From Casablanca
to Marrakech Express, Brian Edwards claims that the discourse of American Orientalism as it drifts afield from the French-
European frames tries to “pay nearly much attention to the French Empire as they do to those Berber and Arab cultures of the
Maghreb and North African landscapes”.7 Brian Edwards’s view captures within its pictorial nature both his stand against Said’s
lopsided version of Orientalism as well as his new vision of American engagement with the East.
In her Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism, Mari Youshihara explains this new conception of
American Orientalism, putting it against European colonialism. She also contends that the US approach to the Orient did not
entail direct colonial rule but built and consolidated an informal Empire through the Open Door Policy.8 In brief, this claim of
difference in narrating the Orient in a movie such as Casablanca is oftentimes ascribed to the evolving relationship USA had and
still has with the Orient. This new phase, which characterizes American Orientalism, is interchangeably referred to as “the
American Century”. It refers to ‘the rapidly expanding American Empire’.9
The dogmatic act of narrating and representing Morocco may be imbued with an innermost desire to devalue and
disparage all things Oriental and Moroccan. In Casablanca, this tendency to misjudge things Moroccan is evident in the filmic
techniques and the stock images that the film-maker excessively uses. This innermost feeling of objectifying, feminizing and
orientalising is nowhere better illustrated than in Said’s most eloquently phrased statement and better depicted in Curtiz’s
strategic method of silencing the Moroccans: ‘’Everyone who writes about the Orient must locate himself vis-à-vis the orient,
translated into his text, this location includes the kind of narrative voice he adopts, the type of structure he builds, the kind of
images, themes, motifs that circulate in this text- all of which adds up to deliberate ways of addressing the reader, contain the
orient and finally representing it or speaking in its behalf ‘’.10
Casablanca has always been a favourite topic of historians. Casablanca, that is Morocco, stands out in the evolution of
Great Power rivalries as indicated in the historical literature of World War II. It was also a stage for this struggle to occupy more
territories, through which Hollywood would play so central a role in this process of representing French Morocco onwards.
Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca negotiates the colonial presence in Morocco and justifies American imperial intervention. The
American approach to the Orient therefore falls into the same traps as previous Orientalists did. The movie translates literally
the spirit of Western Orientalism, denying any possible cultural dialogue. Western rendition has it that the American character
(Rick for example) takes priority over the Moroccan. Although Casablanca tries to play down the voice of the Casablancaises, the
local voice seems to circulate throughout Casablanca. In its attempt to produce Morocco à là Americaine, it traces the same strides of
the European tradition. The film maker reproduces the same stock images that were in wide circulation in Orientalist texts, such
as the chaotic and insecure Oriental space. Through Curtiz’s distorted lenses of the camera, Morocco is a space populated by
thieves, gamblers, partisans, spies and refugees. Casablanca is represented as a Hell everybody is trying to escape. The camera
grammar contributes to the colonialist nature of the movie. Moroccans are hardly ever foregrounded in view of the
overwhelming shots featuring other nationalities (German, French, American, Italians….). The only single shot is dedicated to
show on frame Abdul, the Moroccan but not quite to borrow a phrase from Homi Bhabha, who was erroneously dressed à là
Turkish. This mis-representation indicates that American lectures on Morocco have always been ‘misinformed’, to use Rick
Blaine’s conspicuous phrase.11
Casablanca is also paradigmatic of this overlap between the political and the cultural in the process of producing Morocco. The movie is Orientalist par
excellence in so far as it articulates the American voice and it polices the local voice. Curtiz brings Rick’s Café Americain
to the centre and discards any symptom of the native culture. The other issue that the film raises is the tension between
France and the USA, as well as the tension between Germany, a distinguished western military power, and other western nations. Through the character of Major
Stasser, the movie seems to write a new phase of world history in which World War II problematizes any stable
opposition between West and non-West. The café therefore becomes a site of pol i t ical negotiat ion, s igning the
beginning of a new American role in world politics.
Brian Edwards writes that Casablanca
barely acknowledges the presence of Moroccans in its own depiction of Morocco. This double s tandard-
schizophrenic discourse of Orientalism be it French, British or American is presented in the movie. The intentional
elision would have challenged the French motto “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”, one of the movie’s most striking images. Such elision that characterizes the American
version of Morocco as it conforms to the E u r o p e a n i s i n d i c a t i v e o f t h e schizophrenic discourse of Orientalism,
in all its shapes and forms.
Casablanca seems to incarnate both Eurocentr ic and Amer ican
Orientalisms. In his book, The Rhetoric of Empire, David Spurr points to a few rhe to r i c f ea tu re s , among wh ich
idealization is useful in a reading of the movie. Idealization, which is inherent in colonial history, is recurrent in Casablanca which seems to idealize whatever is
Western( French, German, American) and condemns things Moroccan. Casablanca’s flamboyant representation is
evident in the process of idealizing the
deeds of the West in the way it champions the plot featuring Rick. It is the voice of the West/ Rick/ America that exclusively dominates the entire narrative. Another
colonial feature Spurr evokes in his pioneering study is naturalization. Natives are in a state of nature as
opposed to the state of culture that the civilized West entertains. The movie thereby seems to reiterate this dichotomy
of the civilized West VS the uncivilized East so far as all natives are assigned secondary roles to serve the West .12 Casablanca reaffirms its Orientalist
structure and ratifies this positional superiority that the the Occident assumes over the Orient.
As it is paradigmatic of American Orientalism that claims some difference
in the act of narrating the Orient, Casablanca- in its usual Orientalist nostalgia- precipitates into demarcating the American people from other people.
The movie successfully sets America in direct opposition to Germany, thereby eulogizing American participation in the
combat against Nazism. I would say that Curtiz’s artistic work translates à là letter the ideals of this new American discourse
which I have partly labeled named as ‘le Role Americain’.
Such symptoms of this new
American discourse on the Orient are through which America features as a ‘force of liberation and as a form of
domination.’13I would argue that the movie effectively traces the evolution of America as a global power participating
in liberating Morocco from European domination. Casablanca, worldly as it is, has founded two different approaches to Morocco: the French and the American.
14
Casablanca reiterates these colonial methodic strategies that Said
summarizes in his Magnus opus, Orientalism. The movie incarnating American Orientalism seems to reproduce the same
denigrating and policing discourse on
Morocco in the way it s i lences the l o c a l v o i c e
a n d r a t h e r articulates the American. Through the exclusionist camera grammar, we are
taught to embrace the American point of view and discard any elements that could speak for Moroccan culture. Curtiz’s
rendition of Casablanca would have been neural, unbiased and non-Orientalist had it taken an account of native culture. His version of Morocco seems thereof to
replicate and merely reproduce the same ‘belittling strategies” as to translate the essence of Moroccaness à là Orientalism.
The movie, I would say, also helps the American define themselves as Brian Edwards puts it: “presentations of the
world or the foreign played a special role in rethinking the meaning of American national identity”. Morocco thereby has become a stage for the interaction of
Western characters. “In Casablanca’, Edwards writes “the writing, the casting and the camera itself teach the audience
not to pay attention to the Moroccan population.”15
Casablanca therefore highlights
the fact that this very power to represent Morocco could very much translate into a power to dominate, subjugate, silence and
police Morocco and ultimately speak on behalf of its people. In conclusion, I would argue that Casablanca sets a typical
model upon which a whole filmic tradition about Morocco, a tradition aimed at would eventually speaking,
writing, narrating, representing and filming the Moroccan Other in the same disparaging and vilifying European style. This European discourse on Morocco
operates in complicity with its American counterpart, ultimately serving one goal, that of subjugation.
Male suada Quis
Dolor
ICEM
The Victim Mentality of Immigrants in Europe: Turkish in Germany
Antoniya PETKOVAE-mail: [email protected]
In 1960, Germany opened its doors to
immigrant workers. Due to the increasing
need for work force in the country and the
increasing unemployment in Turkey,
Gastarbeiters (guest workers) would migrate
to Germany in thousands. As a result,
questions of national and cultural identity
begin to emerge, fluctuate and solidify, and
it will be another twenty years before film-
makers step away from representing the
Turkish immigrant as an alienated,
unwelcome, voiceless vict im in an
inhospitable society.
Seeing the Turk as an oppressed and
inferior human being sprang from the low
economic and social status of their
employment, mostly as factory or other
manual workers. The cross-over from the
welcoming and warm motherland into a
cold and inhospitable country was not seen
as a source of strength, wealth and
happiness, but rather as problematic,
undesirable and a result of only the social
and economic circumstances. And hence
the Turkish population adopted the victim
mentality.
Reflecting the increasing Turkish migration,
the German cinema of 1960s and 1970s
began to take interest in the Turkish
migrant workers and the themes of
migration and victimisation. German film-
makers such as Fassbinder began to
represent the immigrant (particularly the
f ema le popu lat ion ) , a s oppre s sed
participants in a patriarchal society,
excluded from the public sphere and
confined within the boundaries of the
home.
The trend to represent the Turks as victims
continued within the cinema of the 1980s,
and was also fortified by the works of the
Turkish film-makers, who began to vividly
adopt this mentality and view themselves as
victims. In the works of Teflik Bauer and
Hark Bohm, namely 40 qm Deutschland
(1986) and Yasemin (1988) respectively,
continued to tell stories of female
oppression and silent suffering as the
experiences of the Turkish female
population. More importantly, these films by
Turkish film-makers adopted the popular
view that the German society was a more
civil and superior structure than the archaic
Turks.
The fall of the Berlin Wall signified a
major shift in German mentality, as the
crisis for social, cultural and national
identity became prevalent in all layers of
German life and culture. The integration
between East and West Germany and the
adjustments the sides had to go through
(particularly the eastern population) awoke
the discussions of unity and put in question
the existence of such a large group of non-
German population within the borders of
the country. With the right-wing and neo-
nazi extremism, Turkish communities fell
the victim of about 1500 reported cases of
violence, as the anti-immigrant sentiments
throughout the country were hardening.
However, it seems this was just the push
the community needed to oppose its
victimised image and begin attempts to
confirm its position as a citizen of the
country, rather than second class migrant
worker. In the 1990, young Turkish
directors emerged on the horizon of
German cinema and they seemed to share
the desire to destroy the image of Turks as
victims and create films which are not 'films
of the oppressed'.
International Cinematic E-Magazine Issue N° 3 2012
There was a major shift in identity – the
Turks were no longer the voiceless victims
of an unwelcoming country, they became
insistent upon being regarded as rightful
inhabitants, as hard-working people who
were equal to the Germans and not
inferior. This newborn confidence and
sense of entitlement threatened the
German population who began to
experience fear for the integrity of their
national identity. In a funny way, Turks
became the powerful and Germans the
powerless.
It is possible to argue that as the
attempts of the humble Gastarbeiter who
moved to Germany in search of a more
stable life to integrate within the German
society were rejected and the migrant
workers were treated as second class
citizens who were intruders in a
homogenous environment, Turks began
less and less interested in integration but
rather with enforcing their own culture
and claiming a place for Turkish
communities among the German.
We can see the shift in Turkish identity
and self-representation in three films from
the this period of film-making: Farewell
to False Paradise (1989); Farewell,
Stranger (1991) and Berlin in Berlin
(1993). In the first, we find themes of
confinement, oppression, opposition
between cultures, nostalgia and longing.
In the second, we find issues of
estrangement and the unwillingness of
the native population to understand the
intruding immigrants. This becomes
probably the first sign of the awakening
Turkish population which begins to resent
the German society for its stubborness
and lack of desire to allow Turks to
integrate. Berlin in Berlin shows the first
attempt to break out from the margins
and occupy a position of awareness and
identity, an attempt to speak back and
defy the image of a voiceless victim.
The figure of the mute and passive
Turkish immigrant, as assimilated also by
the Turkish film-makers of the 1960s till
the 1990s, is no longer an interest. Since
1998, the second and third generation
Turks in Germany become interested in
tackling the issues of migration,
displacement and xenophobia within
their productions. Films such as Fatih
Akin's Short, Sharp, Shock (1998) Head-
On (2004), attempt to illustrate Turkish
community in Germany in a very honest
and accurate manner – they can be
neither German, nor Turkish, but stuck
between the two cultures. Along with
films such as April Children (1998) and
Lola and Billy the Kid (1999), these new
productions include themes of poverty,
c u l t u r a l c l a s h e s a n d t a b o o s ,
discrimination, but also friendships and
yearning for freedom and love. This new
string of cinema represents the interest by
the young Turkish film-makers to create
political and socially-aware films about
current issues and represent the reality of
the Turkish community only as a
background to more human and global
problematics, rather than occupy
themselves with victimising the Turkish
ethnic minority as helpless victims
oppressed by the German culture.
ICEM
Luchino Visconti’s Stranger in AlgerBy Francesco CADDEOe-mail: [email protected]
We’re talking about an Italian
movie taken from a French novel,
called The Stranger, set in an
Algerian location: this movie by
Luchino Visconti is a loyal
cinematographic version of the
famous novel by Albert Camus. As
the literary masterpiece, the movie
focuses on a single life in Alger
during the French occupation
(before the Second World War): the
protagonist is a sort of anti-hero, a
person unfit for feelings and for
ambitions, who is prisoner of his
everyday life. Actually he conducts
a meaningless ordinary life, with a
regular and boring job, with a few
number of friends and with a
French girlfriend: he represents the
normal mediocrity of a Western
World’s man.
The character is, first of all, a
French “pied-noir” who is not able to
develop any social relationship with
local people: as a matter of fact,
during the entire story, local people
are called “Arabs” (as he would put
his finger against a group estranged
and disjointed) just to underline his
total separation from people of that
land. Despite of living there since
he was born, he knows quite
nothing about Arab culture: in the
occasion of his mother’s death, for
example, he shows that he doesn’t
know the local habitudes and
ceremonies. It’s not difficult also to
find some biographic elements of
the author: Camus was also a “pied-
noir”, born in Alger and educated
by his mother without his unknown
father.
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The movie’s protagonist seems also not interested at all in
any relationship with Algerian people: for him they are just
strangers in his life and he’s a stranger in Alger, as he’s
stranger in life’s affairs. Anything goes with indifference in
his existence, and from his point of view there are no
important values to be attached with: also many French
characterizations are viewed in a detached attitude. In fact,
he refuses also Christian religion and his European roots:
when he deals with the possibility to go to Paris he let the
idea pass over, as in front of his mother’s death he’s not
disappointed and also in front of his girlfriend’s feelings he
avoids expressing a deep emotion.
From the other hand, he accepts, without thinking about
it, the colonial rules and the violence of a colonial system as
a something usual. That one is represented in the movie by
the character of Raymond, protagonist’s friend: he’s a rude
and jingoistic person who exploits prostitutes and beat Arab
women out of regrets. One of the protagonist’s fault
concerns his sustain to Raymond’s ways against an Arab
girl: also in that situation he shows how coward a man can
be when, out of strength in life, he agrees with a friend
without thinking on consequences. He’s able only to repeat
his grey existence, still eluding just a brave act.
This story, following this sense, describes the brutality
and the separation between two communities, the occupant one and the local one: in the film Algerian people represent
a constant danger, a wild presence against the occupant’s quietness. So, everywhere he goes, the protagonist is scared
by a stranger look at him: at home, during his job, on the beach, in prison, an Arab presence materializes their
different conditions and it displays the misunderstood “Other” (an otherness totally unrecognized and enigmatic).
Then, the non-sense in the story reaches his top on the
crime’s scene, in which the protagonist becomes a
murder: it’s clear that the killing is useless and
reasonless, but it happens as a written destiny. The
victim is, of course, a young Algerian man in a
revenge’s affair (the brutal Raymond did something
dirty with the Algerian’s sister).
This anti-hero will pay the colonial system that
he accepted, because his colonial law has no pity for his
condition: that French justice, the same justice he
believed friendly and merciful, condemns him to death
penalty in a kafkian process. When he’s on trial, in fact,
the investigations are leaded always about his past, not
about the crime he committed: the penal session tries to
judge his personal history, much more than the tragedy,
as he’s obligated to apologize for all his life and not for
what he did.
In general, to make a paragon, there’s a
difference between the novel by Camus and the
Visconti’s movie: choosing an actor as Marcello
Mastroianni changes a little bit the tonality of the
character. In other words, the atmosphere in the novel is
more cynic and passionless: Mastroianni gives a light
sense of humor and irony that are absent in Camus’
pages. Camus’ hero is not able to begin a riot and to
express any emotion: also when he’s put on trial he
avoids any rebellion, and he shows how he’s unable to
valiant actions.
Finally, the story shows in a strong way how a life
can be with no horizon, how everyday life can become a
prison, how violence is near us, how the system in which
we live can destruct us.
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Speaking of Italian cinema leads us
to evoke a world of tenderness, often
painful, but usually illuminated by a
glimmer of hope. This note of hope is very often embodied in the presence
of children especially those who were born in the aftermath of a devastating war. The great masters of Italian neo-
realism, who helped their compatriots and the world to look candidly at poverty and the life-time problems, talked about the dangers that
threatened children. In this sense, many films have addressed problems t h a t c h i l d r e n f a c e d s u c h a s
delinquency and homelessness.
Children and Adults: Bicycle Thief and Incompresso Many scenarios in Italian movies
are open to ridicule. Reduced to their
plots, they are often just moralized melodramas, but on the screen e v e r y b o d y i n t h e m o v i e i s
overwhelmingly real and nobody is reduced to the status of an object or a symbol. Bicycle Thief In this film the child witnesses the decadence of a man deprived of his bicycle, his only means of transport, which pushes him to steal in return.
This De Sica’s film, is more poignant that it is centred on the kid by the struggle of the father and his apparent failure as tested and experienced by the film because the presence of the child gives the father a r e s i g n a t i o n a n d a n i n t e n s e , overwhelming emotion. The idea of the boy is a stroke of
genius. It is the child who gives the workman's adventure its ethical and
aesthetic dimension, a drama that might well have been only social. In fact, the boy's part is confined to trotting along beside his father. It is
supremely clever to have eliminated the role of the wife in order to give flesh and blood to the private
character of the tragedy in the child’s persona. The complicity between the father and his son is so subtle that it
reaches down to the foundations of the moral life. It is an admiration which the child feels for his father's awareness.
When the father feels tempted to
steal the bike, the silent presence of the little child, who guesses what his father is thinking, is cruel. Trying to
get rid of him by sending him to take the streetcar is like telling a child some
cramped apartment to go and wait on the landing outside for an hour. Only in the best Chaplin films that we find such s i tuations of an equal ly
overwhelming consciousness.
Up to that moment, the man has
been like a god to his son; their relations are characterized by admiration. By his action the father has now compromised them. The
tears they shed as they walk side by side and arms swinging signify their despair over a lost paradise. But the
son returns to a father who has fallen from grace. He will love him henceforth as a human being, shame
and all. The hand that slips into is neither a symbol of forgiveness nor of a childish act of consolation. It is rather the most solemn gesture that
could ever mark the relations between a father and his son: one that makes them equals.
Children in the Post-war Italian Cinema
INTERNATIONAL CINEMATIC E-MAGAZINE
Mohammed AISSAOUIE- mail : [email protected]
Effective Children in War Italian Cinema
Incompresso
A Britain Consul in Florence, Sir Duncombe, lost his wife. He told the sad news to his eldest son, Andrea, a child of ten, but the youngest, and to Milo, a five years old kid, must continue to believe his mother on holiday. The two children, closely related to each other, spend their days having fun using the impatience of the governesses exceeded by their turbulence. The father, still retained its functions, hastily judges the conduct of Andrea as insensitive and irresponsible. He suffers in silence from his father's preference for Milo’s charm and for his age. Milo is jealous and strives to maintain the exclusivity of paternal affection. He succeeded because he took full cold and must be tonsil. Duncombe is again upset because he thinks Andrea is responsible for this incident. To prove he is a man, Andrea, goes to test the resistance of a branch, a worm-eaten tree branch overhanging the pond. The branch breaks and a broken spine. Andrea dies under the portrait of his mother after Duncombe, upset, told him finally "You are truly the son every father would have". The filmmaker explores a recurring theme in his work: Childhood. While in his earlier films, he painted the most miserable youth in an optimistic view, the filmmaker makes the movie misunderstood its darker with the tragic story of a child yet from a wealthy family. To make heaviest misunderstanding of the father, the director accumulates everyday life scenes that establish in detail the finding of failure of characters: they are no longer able to reach or to hear some manner. Childhood, Comencini said, is never perverse: it is simply selfish, animal; she has not yet grasped the totality in which it must melt to enter the world of the adolescent and adult.
Children, City and Camorra
the Sciciliana
After the success at Cannes Gomorra and Il Divo, the Italian Mafia returns to the big screen of this Sicilian Palermo Marco Amenta. The filmmaker portrays the true story of Rita Atria, a young Sicilian rebel who, from the age of 17, defies mafia to avenge the death of his father and his brother. The instrument of her vengeance: Justice in the of Judge Paolo Borsellino. At the beginning of the film, Rita is a girl who worships his father, feared and respected by all in the Sicilian village where, as everywhere in Sicily, it is the mafia that is the law. Until that victims are the beloved father, killed before his eyes, then his brother.
It is the time when the Mafia starts in drug trafficking, and the father of Rita dies for refusing to enter into this new game. Rita, proud and indomitable, decides to avenge the father that she thinks he is unassailable and innocent. "I m is called Rita Mancuso, "she repeated several times in the film, as to assert an identity that the death of his father seems to have removed, and the mafia who denies that it is under his control. She arrives in the office of an anti-mafia judge, to summon for revenge and justice.
At the same time that it tells the story of a senseless struggle against the Mafia, the film paints a portrait of a young girl who suffered the brunt of the consequences of a gesture designed as a filial duty, a gesture that she believed, also liberating. Moving to Rome Rita cut its roots: it's only the first step of a short path that crosses the lead; she had to avenge his father, having to admit in court, that he was a criminal. The visit to Rome marks the end of childhood, innocence albeit illusory, and the end of freedom, albeit illusory, also in Sicily. In Rome, Rita must be protected: that is to say, monitored, walled in impersonal apartments; renowned for his consistent anonymity to be assured. The golden age of childhood was a myth, but the transition to adulthood too sudden rushes Rita in an inhuman universe, disproportionate to the image of his tragic fate. In conclusion of the place of children in the Italian cinema, this is the same feeling already highlighted our rightful what tenderness, what heat emerge Italian cinema! Burning and its evocation of the beauty and purity of childhood invite us to reflect, through it, on the social and spiritual values. The lesson of childhood in the Italian cinema is one that we should have often what our hearts warm.
2012 I N T E R N A T I O N A L C I N E M A T I C E - M A G A Z I N E
Federico Fellini, Italy’s most
p ro m i n e n t a u t e u r fi l m m a k e r i s
characteristically associated with artistic
films that reflect his peculiar cinematic
visions and insights. Fellini’s films such
as La dolce vita [1960] and 8 ½ [1963]
reveal his fascination with the intricacies
of human psychology. The style of
mixing elements of fantasy with reality
has become Fellini’s personal signature.
Fellini presents time in an unorthodox
way because he does not essentially
associate time to action. In fact, time in
Fellini’s films is very difficult, if not
impossible, to pin down due to the quick
and illogical jumps from one scene to
the next. Fellini’s idiosyncratic method
is palpable in his first renowned film La
dolce vita. Although this film is depicted
in a somehow linear chronological
pattern, its temporal structure is not
easily traceable. The plot of the film, I
presume, is inspired by mythical literary
narrative paradigms that center on the
psychological development of a male
figure (Marcello). This affective maturity
is typically only achieved through
undergoing a mystifying and an
emotionally-exhausting journey.
Such psychologizing of the male
character is reminiscent of Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown
(1835). Goodman Brown has been
por t rayed a s an innocen t and
benevolent man but he has to go
through a maturity journey which
impacts Brown’s subsequent l i fe
decisions. Similarly, Marcello in La dolce
vita encounters different adventures that
made him lose hope in achieving his
professional goals and left him bitter and
morally corrupt like Goodman Brown in
the end of the story. However, La dolce
vita’s story is presented in separate
segments, each one depicting a different
adventure that the male protagonist
undertakes. Interestingly, there is no
smooth transition between these
segments, given that editing is essentially
characterized by the jump principle.
Viewers simply witness the shift from
one sequence to the next without being
able to construct a clear temporal
connection between them. This
particular representation of time reflects
Fellini’s primary concern of calling
attention to the psychological experience
of the protagonist at the expense of
building logical timelines.
M. OUIDYANE ELOUARDAOUI
E-MAIL:
‘‘Unconventional Expressions of Temporality in Films of Federico Fellini’’
Fellini’s unconventional treatment of
time in relation to narrative is more
prominent in his subsequent film 8 ½.
The main character is also a male figure
trying to regain meaning in his life and
he equally engages in relationships with
women who belong to different social
classes and embrace conflicting moral
codes. Guido, the male protagonist, is a
director that casts artists from various
countries in order to bring to life the
film that can add to his previous
masterpieces. Like Marcello, Guido is
not enjoying a stable personal life. He is
attached to his spirited intellectual wife
bu t f r e q u e n t l y ch e a t s o n h e r.
Nonetheless, the notion of psychological
agony is more subtle in this film
compared to La dolce vita. This is partly
due to the presence of humor that both
the twisted dialogue and the fantasy
scenes help generate.
For instance, Luisa, the
miserable wife usually makes sarcastic
comments about Guido’s unscrupulous
affairs and endless lies. In the scene
where Guido casts actresses for the role
of a betrayed wife, when the cast actress
says “I am no good to you this way, I am
just a nuisance”, the wife sardonically
responds to her friend’s inquiry about
the type of the cast role saying: “did not
you hear, she is the wife.” The sarcastic
tone of Guido’s wife is stronger in the
long harem sequence where Guido
imagines that he has all the women he
has encountered and desired gathered
in one place serving, feeding and
cuddling him. In that fantasy sequence,
Luisa takes care of the house and cooks
with a seemingly contented face
addressing Guido offscreen: “don’t you
think I am good now, I don’t bother you
anymore, I don’t ask questions,” and she
adds with a slight mordant timbre, “a
bit slow, wasn’t it? It’s taken me 20 years
to understand.” Fellini here playfully
gives the viewers access to Guido’s
fantastical thoughts regarding his
doomed marital life, his past affairs, and
his memories as a kid. Nonetheless,
though the wife is depicted as cynical in
several instances her nearly certain
conviction that Guido’s lustful caprices
would never end, renders her both
bitter and pathetic. The boundaries
between reality and fantasy in 8 ½ are
further blurred by the technique of
temporal transcendence. Fantasy
sequences unconditionally intermingle
with what we think are episodes of
“reality,” which offers the viewers a rich
and a problematic sequence that
requires a mental effort to determine its
spatial and temporal boundaries. In
addition, these sequences are being
presented in a disconnected manner in
which Guido’s childhood memories
come up randomly. Thus, unlike La dolce
vita, not only are the actions presented
in temporal disconnection but they
evolve in a non-linear fashion as well.
Despite the fact that the Italian
auteur deprives the audience of the
classical visual pleasure derived from
fo l l ow i n g t h e l i n e a r t e m p o r a l
development of the films’ narrative and
resist creating classical protagonists, he
crafts a surrogate visual pleasure
exemplified in other aspects., such as the
use of black humor in several scenes in
8 ½. Moreover, the way Fellini
contradicts the viewers’ expectations,
which have been molded by the
narrative pattern of classical Hollywood
cinema, incite the viewers to consider
unconventional filming representations
of previously discussed themes. Fellini’s
films invite the viewers to look beyond
the depicted visuals; his artistic blending
of fantasy and reality generates scenes
that are beautifully soaked with
meanings about life, love and death. His
images that are invariably liberated
from the traditional time-action bond
attempt to explore the mysteries of
human psychology and critically look at
the intr icate nature o f human
relationships.
References:
1 Gönül Dönmez-Collin, Cinemas of the Other: a Personal Journey with Film Makers from the Middle East and Central Asia (Bristol, Great Britain: Intellect Books, Cromwell Press 2006), p.10.
Thi s paper inves t i gate s the
representation of Europeans’ mixed
marriages. To provide a global definition
of what is meant by the term ‘mixed
marriage’. Varro, Streiff-Fenart and
Philippe (1994), for instance, see that to
approach the semantics of the term, it is
necessary to start from the most common
perception of what a mixed couple is: a
couple in which the two partners are
from different cultures. The archetype is
the black-and-white union, as though the
most acute cultural differences were the
most visible ones; the mixed couple thus
has its traditional image, ‘the domino’. In
this regard, M. M'sili and G. Neyrand
(1998, P. 386) view it as ‘Marriage
between nationals and foreign nationals is
generally taken to be a significant
indicator of the latter’s social integration
in their host country. In fact, in addition
to the obvious social significance of such
‘mixing’, the foreign partner usually has
the right to acquire his or her spouse’s
nationality, which means no longer being
counted among the foreign nationals (nor
will their children be)’. Therefore, mixed
marriages lead to cultural integrations as
well.
In parallel with the cultural definition,
M. M'sili and G. Neyrand (1998, P.386)
provide a legal definition ‘’A mixed
marriage is between a man and woman
having different nationalities: a ‘mixed
nationality marriage’. This conception is
reductive, however, in that, say, a
marriage between an Algerian origin
who has acquired the French nationality
and an Algerian woman will count as a
mixed marriage, although the two
partners are from the same national
community.’’ This example indicates that
the preference is always given to the
cultural definition than the legal one.
They view that the issue of mixed
c u l t u r e s c a n n o t , t h e r e f o r e , b e
satisfactorily explored when mixed
marriages are defined in terms of
nationality: it addresses partners from
different cultural backgrounds, and
nationality is but one aspect of the
difference.
Now, what are the potential gains and
loses of mixed marriages ? Latif Lalhou‘s
La Grande Villa, for instance, is about a
wonderful mixed couple ‘Rachid and
Florance’. They got married and had a
lovely kid, living together in Paris.
Clearly, the advantage is their boy’s
double culture. He took both his mother
and father’s cultures. He went to French
schools and also interacted with his
grandfather, grandmother and his
cousins. The couple both agreed to move
to live in Morocco for the rest of their
lives. Florence kept her promise, though
her mother tried to change her mind.
Florance wanted to work in a public
hospital in Morocco and give hand to
ordinary people. Absolutely, the film
shows that their experience was full of
challenges, but they knew how to manage
it and overcome all the problems. The
movie ends up showing the family
celebrating the kid’s birth.
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VISUAL ARGUMENTS: The Representation of Mixed Marriages in European Cinema
Cabriel Julien’s Neiully Sa Mère is about Ben Daoud, a young boy (Sami)
whose mother got a job somewhere else in France and she had to leave her
son to her sister who got married to a French man. Sami brought his
colleagues to his aunt Yamina’s house. It was a big villa in Neiully. Sami was
hungry, but he did not eat pork and thus could not make his own breakfast.
Later, his aunt Yamina showed them her fridge full of Halal food. Actually,
Yamina and her husband have got two fridges in the house; one for Yamina
and the other for her husband and his kids. Clearly, we have a mutual respect
for the religion of each of the couple.
On the one hand, M. M'sili and G. Neyrand believe that the growing
number of marriages between French and foreign nationals point clearly to
the success of the process, namely, the uplifting of differences. But, on the
other hand, we find plenty of sad stories of mixed marriages. For instance,
The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le Mulet 2007) explores the story of Julia and
Majid. Majid worked as tourist guide and cheated his wife with tourists. Julia
could not bear her husband’s cheating; she found condoms in his clothes on
many occasions. He even received calls from girls at his mother’s home.
Majid’s sister got married to a French man. She was very happy with him,
and he was honest with her. Also, Thomas was married to an Arab lady, and
she taught him Arabic, etc. But the only problem was with Majid; his wife
got hurt deeply, because of his repeated cheating, and she once started
crying. Shortly, Allouche’s The Secret of The Grain shows successful marriages
on the part of the Arab ladies and failed marriages on the part of the Arab
boys.
To conclude, mixed marriages yield both double cultures and cultural
conflicts. Majid is not a good example of cultural conflicts, but Rachid and
Florance in La Grande Villa display the issue of cultural conflict when the
family wants to make a circumcision to their kid. Florence doesn’t believe in
it, but she understands it at last. In short, mixed marriages are full of
promises and warnings as well.
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INTERNATIONAL CINEMATIC E-MAGAZINE
International Cinematic E-Magazine Staff:
EDITOR IN CHIEF :
1. HICHAM MOUSSA
CO-EDITORS :
2. MOHAMMED BELBACHA
3. MOHAMMED ZERIOUH
4. ANTONIYA PETKOVA
WRITERS:
1. OUIDYANE ELOUARDAOUI
2. MOHAMED LAHMIDI
3. AHLAM LAMJAHDI
4. LIMAME BARBOUCHI
5. ANTONIYA PETKOVA
6. IBRAHIM KALLAOUCH
7. AISSAOUI MOHAMED
8. NATASHA HAMRMER
COMMUNICATION
DIRECTOR:
1. HICHAM MOUSSA
ICEM PROOFREADER:
. MOHAMED BELBACHA
. LIMAME BARBOUCHI
. ZERIOUH MOHAMMED