Film in SocietyArthur Asa Berger Reviews from Society magazine analyze the social and cultural aspects of recent films, such as Nashville, Amarcord, Barry Lyndon, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie |
Contents
| 19 | |
| 33 | |
Chinatown | 41 |
The Godfather | 51 |
THX1138 | 59 |
Wiseman Films | 69 |
BURN | 79 |
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie | 85 |
Amarcord | 93 |
On Lina Wertmuller | 99 |
Culture Kubrick and Barry Lyndon | 109 |
Blacula Dracula AD 1972 | 115 |
Recent Trends in Pornographic Films | 121 |
Cashing in on Vicarious Experience | 137 |
Bibliography | 143 |
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Common terms and phrases
Amarcord American anal intercourse analysis Angeles appeared Arthur Penn audience Barry Lyndon basic Battle of Algiers become Blacula Bonnie and Clyde bourgeoisie Brando Buñuel called camera character Chinatown consciousness context country music culture deal death director disaster disaster films Discreet Charm Dracula dream Elaine epic eroticism escape evil fantasies Fascist Fellini Film in Society film's Fiore Gennarino genre girl Godfather hardboiled heroes and heroines Hollywood homosexuality human ideological important institutions kind Kubrick leader Lina Wertmuller Mafia male Maltese Falcon meaning Mike Nichols Mimi moral movie Nashville Nazi Nichols novel plot political popular porno films problem produced Raffaella reality role scene science fiction sense sequence sexual shows significant social sociological structure suggest symbolic techniques theaters theme thing tion Towering Inferno viewer violence wants Wertmuller Wertmuller's Wiseman woman women
Popular passages
Page 11 - And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong!
Page 10 - Instead of pre-existing ideas then, we find in all the foregoing examples values emanating from the system. When they are said to correspond to concepts, it is understood that the concepts are purely differential and defined not by their positive content but negatively by their relations with the other terms of the system. Their most precise characteristic is in being what the others are not.
Page 9 - A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable; it would be a part of social psychology and consequently of general psychology; I shall call it semiology1 (from Greek semeion 'sign'). Semiology would show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them.
Page 125 - Bataille defines eroticism. Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest independent of the natural goal: reproduction and the desire for children. From this elementary definition let us now return to the formula I proposed in the first place: eroticism is assenting to life even in death. Death is another way of attaining unity, and has as important a place in Bataille's thought as religion. Death breaks down our individual, disconnected beings...
Page 4 - ... reveals a character who is presented as the owner of the glance corresponding to shot one. That is, the character in shot two occupies the place of the absent-one corresponding to shot one. This character retrospectively transforms the absence emanating from shot one's other stage into a presence. What happens in systemic terms is this: the absent-one of shot one is an element of the code that is attracted into the message by means of shot two. When shot two replaces shot one, the absent-one...
Page 15 - Codes and subcodes are applied to the message in the light of a general framework of cultural references, which constitutes the receiver's patrimony of knowledge: his ideological, ethical, religious standpoints, his psychological attitudes, his tastes, his value systems, etc.
Page 9 - Language is a system of signs that express ideas, and is therefore comparable to a system of writing, the alphabet of deaf-mutes, symbolic rites, polite formulas, military signals, etc.
Page 143 - There is still a great deal of work to be done in this area comparing methods of analysis for further materials and types of tests.
Page 38 - Wicker stated that the movie depicts the ' 'vulgarity, greed, deceit, cruelty, barely contained hysteria, and the frantic lack of root and grace into which American life has been driven by its own heedless vitality . . .the writhings of a culture that does not even know it is choking on exhaust fumes.
Page 37 - ... the American malaise" and "should be required viewing before we consider celebration of a Bicentennial." New York Times Associate Editor Tom Wicker stated that the movie depicts the "vulgarity, greed, deceit, cruelty, barely contained hysteria, and the frantic lack of root and grace into which American life has been driven by its own heedless vitality...