Cinema: A Visual Anthropology

187 Pages·2010·2.45 MB·English

by  Gordon Gray

CINEMA
Key Texts in the Anthropology of Visual and Material Culture
Editor: Marcus Banks
Key Texts in the Anthropology of Visual and Material Culture is an innovative series of access­
ible texts designed for students. Each volume concisely introduces and analyses core topics
in the study of visual anthropology and material culture from a distinctively anthropological
perspective.
Titles in this series include:
Cinema: A Visual Anthropology
Forthcoming titles:
Museums: A Visual Anthropology
CINEMA
A Visual Anthropology
Gordon Gray
Oxford • New York
English edition
First published in 2010 by
Berg
Editorial offices:
First Floor, Angel Court, 81 St Clements Street, Oxford OX4 1AW, UK
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
© Gordon Gray 2010
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form
or by any means without the written permission of Berg.
Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gray, Gordon
Cinema : a visual anthropology / Gordon Gray. — English ed.
p. cm. — (Key texts in the anthropology of visual and material culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978­1­84520­793­9 (cloth) — ISBN 978­1­84520­794­6 (pbk.)
1. Motion pictures in ethnology. 2. Visual anthropology. I. Title.
GN347.G723 2010
301—dc22
2009045269
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84520 793 9 (Cloth)
978 1 84520 794 6 (Paper)
Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan
Printed in the UK by the MPG Books Group
www.bergpublishers.com
CoNtENts
List of Illustrations vii
Introduction ix
Suggested Further Reading xvii
1 The History of Cinema 1
Introduction 2
Precursors 3
Early Cinema 5
The “Golden Era” of Fiction Film 15
Auteurs, Independents, and Global Blockbusters 28
Suggested Further Reading 33
2 Film Theory 35
Introduction 36
Early Film Theory 37
Critical Film Theories 45
Suggested Further Reading 73
3 Context of Production, Distribution, and Exhibition 75
Introduction 76
Context of Production 77
Third Cinema 88
Contexts of Distribution and Exhibition 96
Social and Cultural Contexts – Anthropology of the Cinema 99
Suggested Further Reading 107
vi contents
4 Context of Reception 109
Introduction 110
Reception and Audience Studies 112
Suggested Further Reading 133
Conclusion 135
Notes 143
Bibliography 147
Index 157
LIst of ILLustrAtIoNs
I.1 Local cinema in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, Japan. ix
1.1 Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo in a scene from Rashomon. 1
1.2 Scene from Le Voyage dans la Lune [Voyage to the Moon]
(G. Méliès 1902). 7
1.3 George Siegmann and Lillian Gish in a scene from The Birth of a
Nation (D. W. Griffith 1915). 8
1.4 Max Schreck in a scene from Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau 1922). 12
1.5 Actress Aishwarya Rai in a Bollywood song and dance number from
Bride and Prejudice (G. Chadha 2004). 18
1.6 Filming Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman
(M. Curtiz 1942). 19
1.7 An example of the Golden Age “Picture Palace” – the Eros Cinema
Mumbai, India. Built in 1938. 20
1.8 Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (M. Scorsese 1976). 27
1.9 Movie poster for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (J. Cameron 1991). 31
2.1 An art­house cinema in Nagoya, Japan. 35
2.2 Orson Welles in a seminal scene from the expressionist influenced
The Third Man (C. Reed 1949). 40
2.3 Director Orson Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland filming
Citizen Kane (O. Welles 1941). 48
2.4 Palace Talkies theatre Mumbai India. Built for millworkers. 51
2.5 Some Bollywood codes on display – hand­drawn movie posters on
a wall in Bangalore, India. 57
2.6 Stall selling Nigerian VCDs at the multicultural Kwakoe festival in
the Bijlmermeer district of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 65
2.7 Projectionist checking the equipment at the Elgin Talkies movie
theatre (built in 1896) Bangalore, India. The equipment is from
the 1930s. 71
3.1 Cinema in Marrakesh, Morocco. 75
viii list of illustrations
3.2 Partially hand drawn poster advertising Jean­Claude Van Damme
in JCVD (El Mechri 2008) – Nagoya. Japan. 78
3.3 Inside the Elgin Talkies cinema hall (built in 1896) Shivaji Road
in Shivaji Nagar district of Bangalore, India. 80
3.4 Cinema in Gunung Sitoli, Nias Island, Indonesia. 82
3.5 Facade of the colonial­era Elgin Talkies cinema hall building (built
in 1896) in Bangalore, India. 87
3.6 Sign outside the abandoned Cine Oriente in the center of Santiago
de Cuba, Cuba. 91
3.7 While cineplexes exist throughout Africa, films are also viewed in
unexpected places, such as this cinema in Gambia. 106
4.1 Cathay Cinema in Shanghai, China. 109
4.2 Cinema­goers at the entrance of the Elgin Talkies cinema in
Bangalore, India. 111
4.3 Films are not only watched in cinemas, the Special Video Club,
Gambia. 122
4.4 Nollywood VCDs on display at a stall at the multicultural
Kwakoe festival in the Bijlmermeer district of Amsterdam,
the Netherlands. 127
4.5 Close­up of Nollywood VCDs on display at a stall at the
multicultural Kwakoe festival in the Bijlmermeer district of
Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 128
C.1 Cineplex in Japan. 135
INtroduCtIoN
Figure I.1 Local cinema in the Asakusa district of Tokyo,
Japan. Photograph by Erik Katerborg, 2008.
So in viewing Rashomon we cognitively “know” and affectively “feel” in relation
to a series of events that never took place, that are not real, that are “only a
film.” Furthermore, as the very first philosopher to write about film, Hugo
Munsterberg, argued, we experience and feel the film world all the while
knowing it is not real; knowing that its apartness from our world is absurd, yet
enjoying it. We are not fooled. How can this be, and what is the nature of the
suspension of credibility that allows cognition and affect to work, but not so as
to deceive us into mistaking the film’s world for real?
Jarvie, Philosophy of the Film: Epistemology, Ontology, Aesthetics