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March 2009, Week 1

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Subject:
From:
Joshua Hirsch <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 6 Mar 2009 18:34:23 -0800
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Not familiar with the Benjamin/Deleuzian take on allegory, but here are some allegories that have interested me.

 

1.  Some Hollywood films of the blacklist period that contain allegories of the blacklist.  The best example in my opinion is High Noon, written by Carl Foreman while he was in the process of being blacklisted.


2.  Some "film gris," i.e. leftist Hollywood crime films of the blacklist period, use the gangster genre as allegories of monopoly capitalism.  Best example: Force of Evil.

 

3.  Many Roman Polanski films can be read -- despite Polanski's denials -- as allegories of his experiences in the Holocaust.  Perhaps ditto for some of Istvan Szabo's films in relation to Szabo's experiences in the Holocaust -- for example Father.

 

Joshua Hirsch

 
> Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 11:24:36 +1100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [SCREEN-L] Allegorical films
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Dear List members,
> 
> I am putting together a course that will focus on the styles and aesthetics
> of allegorical cinema. I already have a good list of films, but was
> wondering if list members would have any suggestions. I have lots of films
> from Spain, Iran, Germany, one from Tunisia and of course Raul Ruiz and Atom
> Egoyan and am pretty familiar with the allegorical aspects of Brazilian
> Cinema Novo (disucssed in Ismail Xavier's book). I have less knowledge of
> other Latin American cinema though.
> 
> I'm also quite unfamiliar with films from Eastern Europe, except Kusturica.
> Info on availability on DVD with English subtitles would also be helpful.
> 
> I'd also like to include a couple of Hollywood films which have been read
> allegorically. In particular ones which are not necessarily allegorical
> simply on a narrative level, but use interesting film techniques to alert
> the viewer to meaning beyond the surface.
> 
> Oh, and please don't mention Star Wars!!!!
> 
> All suggestions welcome.
> PS. I have a Benjamin/Deleuzian take on allegory.
> 
> Warm regards,
> Michelle Langford
> 
> 
> Dr Michelle Langford
> Lecturer
> School of English, Media and Performing Arts
> The University of New South Wales
> Sydney 2052 Australia
> Room: Webster 311O
> Phone: + 61 2 9385 4489
> Fax: + 61 2 9385 6812
> 
> Allegorical Images
> http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ppbooks.php?isbn=9781841501383
> 
> ----
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> http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html

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