The Films of Denys Arcand

The Films of Denys Arcand PDF Author: Jim Leach
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813598885
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
Denys Arcand is best known outside Canada for three films that were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Film: The Decline of the American Empire (1986), Jesus of Montreal (1989), and The Barbarian Invasions (2003), the last of which won the Award. Yet Arcand has been making films since the early 1960s. When he started making films, Quebec was rapidly transforming from a relatively homogeneous community, united by its Catholic faith and French language and culture, into a more fragmented modern society. The Films of Denys Arcand sheds light on how Arcand addressed the impact of these changes from the 1960s, when the long-drawn-out debate on Quebec's possible separation from the rest of Canada began, to the present, in which the traditional cultural heritage has been further fragmented by the increasing presence of diasporic communities. His career and films offer an ideal case study for exploring the contradictions and tensions that have shaped Quebec cinema and culture in a period of increasing globalization and technological change.

The Films of Denys Arcand

The Films of Denys Arcand PDF Author: Jim Leach
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813598885
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
Denys Arcand is best known outside Canada for three films that were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Film: The Decline of the American Empire (1986), Jesus of Montreal (1989), and The Barbarian Invasions (2003), the last of which won the Award. Yet Arcand has been making films since the early 1960s. When he started making films, Quebec was rapidly transforming from a relatively homogeneous community, united by its Catholic faith and French language and culture, into a more fragmented modern society. The Films of Denys Arcand sheds light on how Arcand addressed the impact of these changes from the 1960s, when the long-drawn-out debate on Quebec's possible separation from the rest of Canada began, to the present, in which the traditional cultural heritage has been further fragmented by the increasing presence of diasporic communities. His career and films offer an ideal case study for exploring the contradictions and tensions that have shaped Quebec cinema and culture in a period of increasing globalization and technological change.

Denys Arcand

Denys Arcand PDF Author: Réal La Rochelle
Publisher: McArthur Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Get Book Here

Book Description
Oscar Award winner Denys Arcand’s films such as The Barbarian Invasions and The Decline of the American Empire have garnered both praise and criticism over the years. In this critically acclaimed biography, which appeared first in French, Réal La Rochelle traces the portrait of an artist-intellectual, revealing the passion of a creator for his craft, as well as the setbacks Arcand has encountered. In the background is the history of Quebec, the birthplace of Arcand’s filmic oeuvre, and of course Montreal—the city where all his films have been shot.

Auteur/provocateur

Auteur/provocateur PDF Author: André Loiselle
Publisher: Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
"With the international critical and commercial successes of Le Declin de l'empire americain (The Decline of the American Empire, 1986) and Jesus de Montreal (Jesus of Montreal, 1989) Denys Arcand has risen to the forefront of Canadian filmmaking. These films brought wider recognition to a director whose career spans 30 years and who has played a pivotal role in the development of our perception of French-Canadian cinema ... The book provides a series of insightful critical essays on Arcand's films, together with an interview, filmography and bibliography. The contributions explore aspects of the director's work, including his position within the history of Quebec cinema, his use of sound and music, the critical reception of his films in the United States, and an extensive analysis of his two major features."--Page 4 of cover.

Denys Arcand's Le Declin de l'empire americain and Les Invasions barbares

Denys Arcand's Le Declin de l'empire americain and Les Invasions barbares PDF Author: Andrê Loiselle
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442693320
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Get Book Here

Book Description
The release of Denys Arcand's Le Déclin de l'empire américain (The Decline of the American Empire) in 1986 marked a major turning point in Quebec cinema. It was the first Québécois film that enjoyed huge critical and commercial success at home and abroad. Arcand's tragicomedy about eight intellectuals gathered around a dinner table relating sexy anecdotes became the top-grossing film of all time in Quebec and was the first Canadian feature to be nominated for an Oscar in the foreign-language category. Seventeen years later, Arcand won an Academy Award for the sequel, Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions), where the amusing insouciance of the thirty-somethings talking dirty in Le Déclin is replaced by a sense of moral responsibility and serene resignation. In this engrossing study, André Loiselle presents the first in-depth analysis of both films within the context of Quebec culture. Through close readings and concise cultural analysis of two of the most important films in the history of Quebec cinema, Loiselle demonstrates the ways in which Arcand's work represents a snapshot of the evolution of the French Canadian film industry since 1980. The companion films trace the decline of Quebec's national dream and the Québécois' attempts to cling to their identity against the forces of barbaric globalization. The second title in the new Canadian Cinema series, Denys Arcand's "Le Déclin de l'empire américain" and "Les Invasions barbares" is essential reading for cinephiles, film critics, and anyone with an interest in cultural studies and Canadian and Quebec history.

The Cinema of Canada

The Cinema of Canada PDF Author: Jerry White
Publisher: Wallflower Press
ISBN: 9781904764601
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
Containing 24 essays, each on a different film, this work provides a fascinating historical account of the development of film and documentary traditions across the diverse national and regional communities in Canada.

Immanent Frames

Immanent Frames PDF Author: John Caruana
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438470185
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
For some time now, thinkers across the humanities and social sciences have increasingly called into question the once-dominant view of the relationship between modernity and secularism, prompting some to speak of a "postsecular turn." Until now, film studies has largely been silent about this development, even though cinema itself has been a major vehicle for such reflection. This fact became inescapable in 2011 when Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life and Lars von Trier's Melancholia were released within days of each other. While these two audacious and controversial films present seemingly opposite perspectives—the former a thoughtful meditation on faith, the latter a portrayal of nontriumphalist atheism—together they raise critical questions about transcendence and immanence in modern life. These films are, however, only the most conspicuous of a growing body of works that call forth similar and related questions—what this collection aptly calls "postsecular cinema." Taking the nearly simultaneous release of The Tree of Life and Melancholia as its starting point and framing device, this pioneering collection sets out to establish the idea of postsecular cinema as a distinct body of films and a viable critical category. Adopting a film-philosophy approach, one group of essays examines Malick's and von Trier's films, while another looks at works by Chantal Akerman, Denys Arcand, the Dardenne brothers, and John Michael McDonagh, among others. The volume closes with two important interviews with Luc Dardenne and Jean-Luc Nancy that invite us to reflect more deeply on some of the central concerns of postsecular cinema.

Cinema of Pain

Cinema of Pain PDF Author: Liz Czach
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1771124350
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the defeat of the pro-sovereigntists in the 1995 Quebec referendum, the loss of a cohesive nationalistic vision in the province has led many Québécois to use their ancestral origins to inject meaning into their everyday lives. A Cinema of Pain argues that this phenomenon is observable in a pervasive sense of nostalgia in Quebec culture and is especially present in the province’s vibrant but deeply wistful cinema. In Québécois cinema, nostalgia not only denotes a sentimental longing for the bucolic pleasures of bygone French-Canadian traditions, but, as this edited collection suggests, it evokes the etymological sense of the term, which underscores the element of pain (algos) associated with the longing for a return home (nostos). Whether it is in grandiloquent historical melodramas such as Séraphin: un homme et son péché (Binamé 2002), intimate realist dramas like Tout ce que tu possèdes (Émond 2012), charming art films like C.R.A.Z.Y. (Vallée 2005), or even gory horror movies like Sur le Seuil (Tessier 2003), the contemporary Québécois screen projects an image of shared suffering that unites the nation through a melancholy search for home.

The Films of Bong Joon Ho

The Films of Bong Joon Ho PDF Author: Nam Lee
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978818920
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
Bong Joon Ho won the Oscar® for Best Director for Parasite (2019), which also won Best Picture, the first foreign film to do so, and two other Academy Awards. Parasite was the first Korean film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. These achievements mark a new career peak for the director, who first achieved wide international acclaim with 2006’s monster movie The Host and whose forays into English-language film with Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017) brought him further recognition. As this timely book reveals, even as Bong Joon Ho has emerged as an internationally known director, his films still engage with distinctly Korean social and political contexts that may elude many Western viewers. The Films of Bong Joon Ho demonstrates how he hybridizes Hollywood conventions with local realities in order to create a cinema that foregrounds the absurd cultural anomie Koreans have experienced in tandem with their rapid economic development. Film critic and scholar Nam Lee explores how Bong subverts the structures of the genres he works within, from the crime thriller to the sci-fi film, in order to be truthful to Korean realities that often deny the reassurances of the happy Hollywood ending. With detailed readings of Bong’s films from Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) through Parasite (2019), the book will give readers a new appreciation of this world-class cinematic talent.

Questions for the Movie Answer Man

Questions for the Movie Answer Man PDF Author: Roger Ebert
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 9780836228946
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Get Book Here

Book Description
What was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction? Why don't movie actors wear seat belts? Was Fargo really based on a true story? Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert answers these and hundreds more. Using wit, insight, and dozens of other experts, he resolves some of the most common questions about the moviesand some of the most bizarre.

Francophone Film

Francophone Film PDF Author: Lieve Spaas
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719058615
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book Here

Book Description
Covering the rich film production of Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, the Caribbean, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, this book brings together films that might otherwise be divided by questions of race, gender, genre, period, or nation, in a valuable comparative study of a diverse corpus. Individual countries, film-makers, and films are treated separately in order to emphasize their specific identities or those which are represented in their films, and key films are examined within a well-developed historical context. Clearly written and accessible to the specialist and general reader alike, this informative book is a valuable reference source.