Film. Woman. Coffee

The show is taking a break and will be back soon with the new 3rd season – something different but still very familliar to you! Stay tuned and don’t forget your mug of coffee.

FILM. WOMAN. COFFEE (Filmas.Moteris.Kava. – tai, ko jūs dar nežinojote) – we now talk about film history, film theory, film components, film directors and film geography. Just a tiny bit of something that you might not know about films yet.

No feelings, prior experiences or emotions anymore. We are now leaving alone all the emotional tones, consigned to the history that was Season 1. Feminine caffeine-affected mental processes are based on the book-written facts now. So it is time to learn something new. Get yourself a cup of coffee and configure your brain on this tune at 9.00pm on Mondays:

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April 12th

Cinema of Modern Middle East.

Cinema, as a powerful tool of cultural production, stands at the heart of representation of everything and so of the modern Middle East as well. One of the most salient angles of this representation is cinema’s engagement with the depiction of politics in the region. Everybody knows that the Middle East is at the heart of political debate today. With the events of September 11, 2001, the war on Iraq and shifting American interests in the on-going Palestinian–Israeli conflict, the region has been perceived globally as a place of conflict that is no longer confined to its geographical setting. The cinematic representation of this matter  is not confined to Western cinema industries, like Hollywood. The Arab world has also engaged in the creation of such cinematic images. Over the last 25 years, both Hollywood and Arab cinemas have been prolific in producing films revolving around the conflict and politics themes.

(Repeated on April 19th, 9pm)

March 22nd

Transnationalism and feminism – example of Babel (2006).

Across the ocean, following the Schengen Agreement and the recent eastward expansion of the European Union, the dissolution of Cold War borders within Europe has been counterbalanced by the systematic tightening of barriers around Fortress Europe, designed to control immigration from the east and the south. This has led to the expulsion of large numbers of non-European nationals or to their indefinite detainment in purpose-built camps that are tantamount to prisons. These events have been accompanied by increasing manifestations of racism and by crudely expressed fears of the threat of a “foreign invasion.”

Highlighting transnational encounters between the so-called first and third worlds, Babel (2006) submits a critique of U.S. entitlement to unhindered mobility, and delivers its argument with an uncompromising force: no matter who crosses borders, the crossing is potentially risky and difficult. Especially, if you are a woman.

(Repeated on March 29th, 9pm)

March 1st

What about Martin Scorsese?

Born 17 November 1942 in Flushing Long Island, Martin Scorsese grew up in Elizabeth Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It was a mixture of Italians, Irish and Jews. For Scorsese and his contemporaries growing up in Little Italy there were only two career options, the mob or the church, both of which had their own conflicting codes of honour and ethics. As a child Scorsese had asthma, so was often taken to the cinema because his parents did not know what else to do with him – he couldn’t play sports. At some point, Scorsese became aware that there was somebody behind the camera making the films. For example, not every John Wayne film was great – they seemed to be much better when John Ford or Howard Hawks were the directors. The importance of film to Scorsese led him to seek a life in the cinema.

(Repeated on March 15th, 9pm)

January 18th

Film Noir.

When I think of Film Noir, I think of stillness and silence. I think of a pure black screen with tiny pinpricks of white trying to break through.The image is of the central character thinking. He is thinking about all the bad things that are about to happen to him. He is not happy. He knows that shit happens, but why does it have to happen to him? Film Noir
gives him the answer: Why not?

(Repeated on January 25th, 9pm)

Januray 4th

African cinema.

There is no single entity called “African cinema,” and the films produced in Africa over the past hundred years offer at best a very partial (if totally fascinating) image of the history and current development of the continent. Trying to figure out what “African cinema” actualy might be, a real problem has been how to classify the 1,250 or so filmmakers who have some claim to have produced an African film.

(Repeated on January 11th, 9pm)

November 30th

World War II and the cinema.

The created considerable interest in the Second World War and a desire to learn more have generated an enormous amount of material about the conflict – books, magazines, television documentaries, video games, films, and assorted ephemera. While much of this has been produced simply to profit from a new and lucrative market, a great deal of thoughtful work has been produced by academics, authors, television producers and filmmakers who share the same fascination and who want to understand the full significance and meaning of the war.

Indeed, it might well be argued that the popular memory of the Second World War has always been shaped more by the moving image than by any other form of cultural transmission.

(Repeated on December 7th, 9pm)

November 16th

Surrealism in Films.

Within popular conceptions, surrealism is misunderstood in many different ways, some of which contradict others, but all of these misunderstandings are founded in the fact that they seek to reduce surrealism to a style or a thing in itself rather than being prepared to see it as an activity with broadening horizons. Many critics fail to recognise the distinctive qualities that make up the surrealist attitude. They seek something – a theme, a particular type of imagery, certain concepts – they can identify as ‘surrealist’ in order to provide a criterion of judgement by which a film or art work can be appraised. The problem is that this goes against the very essence of surrealism, which refuses to be here but is always elsewhere. It is not a thing but a relation between things and therefore needs to be treated as a whole; the relevance of a particular film or film maker to surrealism depends upon how that film or individual is situated within a set of relations constituted by surrealist activity. Its relationship with film is one of intimacy and affection that has also been subject to jealous fits at times.

(Repeated on November 23th, 9pm)

November 2nd

A villain of Hollywood – Tim Burton.

‘It can’t be Halloween every day you know.’

‘It is for me.’

Beetlejuice Cartoons: Critter Sitters

Tim Burton is far removed from the mainstream and yet is successful enough to ensure that his name on a film is eminently marketable. Stylistically, Tim Burton is undeniably Hollywood’s most distinctive mainstream director. Every film is designed to within an inch of its life, with the mise en scène and visual motifs providing so much of what should be considered typical Burton.

The world of Tim Burton is magically wonderful and grotesquely grim, the soul of his films characters is torn between wonder and despair and so we can notice the links between horror, folk tale and fantasy genres which have always been very strong.

(Repeated on November 9th, 9pm)

October 19th

Music in Films – is it heard?

Film music is motivated not by artistry but by market forces; film music is derivative to the extreme, sometimes exemplifying downright plagiarism and typically resorting to gimmicks and clichés; film music is a field for hacks, not for “real” composers; the only decent film scores are the occasional efforts by composers whose principal work was for the concert hall, and the only Hollywood regulars worth mentioning are those who at least made an effort to write for that more prestigious venue.

(Repeated on October 26th, 9pm)

October 5th

Hollywood in the 1910s

The 1910s represents a turning point for American society, a period that saw many of the key transformations that helped shape the United States into a modern nation. The 1910s was a time when the center reached into the periphery on an unprecedented scale, due to new technologies and systems of transportation, communication, and distribution.
The boundaries between urban and rural America became less distinct. An urban national culture infiltrated the hinterlands as never before, rendering the periphery’s consciousness of and contact with the cultural center more extensive and palpable than in previous decades. With ever-expanding transportation networks and the emergence of mass production, mass marketing, and mass communications (especially the cinema), American society became more integrated, more interconnected, and more dynamic in its circulation of goods, images, ideas, and people.

(Repeated on October 12th, 9pm)

COMING SOON:

The 3d Season of Film.Woman.Coffee.

Authors: Viktorija Vitiutina, Jonas Valančius

The show is broadcast every other Monday and is repeated the following Monday at the same time.

Language: Lithuanian.

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