Is Tesis 'World Cinema?'
Can you call "Tesis" a "World Cinema piece?
shareWorld Cinema? You better believe it!!!
Every time I show it to a bunch of college students, it goes over even better than the last time.
Ten years later this movie is just starting to gather momentum.
(Oh and I love it too, in case that is not clear—I'm a humanities prof and I teach film studies among other things.)
You are a Prof! goody. Tell me ... how do you define "World Cinema"?
shareGosh, I would have to think about that . . .
Above I meant that TESIS is good enough to be one of those films that gets culled from around the world as representative of the best film-making that is going on at a given time.
But obviously, World Cinema has other connotations as well.
I don't want to be Americo-centric and say that World Cinema is any non-Hollywood film, but I guess my definition would be something like that.
I teach courses involving Spanish & Latin American film and sometimes French & Italian film. I would classify all those as World Cinema. Maybe I should add that World Cinema is produced outside of any major globalizing film industry—not just Hollywood but also Bollywood, the British film industry, perhaps a few others.
Would be interested to know what you and others think.
Thanks for your views.
World Cinema is as "Hollywood" calls it, "Foreign Art Films". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_film) in which, local traditions, conflicts, beliefs, family relationships, and issues closer to home are being platformed and discussed. You cannot categorise them as "Horror", "Thriller" or anything of that sort as the Hollywood money making industry labels. They are the ones that get acclaimed by film critics and win awards but that doesnt get distributed (Sometimes not even within its own country). World Cinema encapaciates the masses of a country to have a feel of their own territory. But because Hollywood has dominated the Movie world, and because it has a formulaeic way of "making" a film, the idea and the definition of world cinema has been pushed back in to oblivion.But this cannot be the be all and end all of this definition. I asked this quesion initially because, in TEsis, the Producer, the Director, the cast and the language are all Spanish. It has also won 6 Goya Awards. But the techniques are Hollywoodish. And in the making of the film, Alejandro Amenabar says "I wanted to do a typical American Car Chase, but because of the Budget, i resorted to a people's chase instead- refering to Anjela's and Marco's chase in the University at the beginning of the film. So Everything is spanish. but the style is American. this is why i asked the question is tesis "World Cinema"
I see what you mean about TESIS owing a lot to Hollywood conventions, but it still was produced outside of the industry and to me that counts as belonging to "World Cinema." It has suspense and violence like a typical American "thriller" product but the violence is more realistic because of the down-to-earth quality of the film. That actually makes many of my students find it more terrifying.
Yet I do not see Amenábar's THE OTHERS as World Cinema because of the presence of a global star-system celebrity, Nicole Kidman, and because the language is English (English language by itself however would not bar a film from entry into the category of World Cinema).
All of his other movies to date are World Cinema to me.
That's interesting about the car chase becoming a people chase. Thanks!
So in that, Would you call "Snuff films" as something indigenous to Spanish speaking people? and please enlighten me of what you think as "produced outside of the industry"
Remember Prof Castro in the film reiterates "We have to give what the audience wants" in that he means the popular form of cinema. (In the modern days, the most popular mode is hollywood)
This is exactly what Amenabar says in the ,making of the film. "We have to give the audience what they expect and what they want"
NOW, can you call Tesis "World Cinema?"
Your Academic View is much appreciated
"Snuff films" are not at all inherently Spanish or Hispanic.
They are an urban legend that probably arose in the U.S.
In reality, there are no snuff films; all such movies become evidence in criminal cases against the killers, and there is no market, legal or illegal, for them.
Did you notice that Prof. Castro is one of the villains in TESIS? So when he says, "we must give the audience what they want" and thereby build up a Spanish film industry modeled on Hollywood, we are to take this with a big dose of irony.
It is not that simple: TESIS acknowledges that people will always be interested in violence and there is no way to repress that. However, there is a difference between a compassionate treatment of violence (man's cruelty toward man) and an attitude of exploitation that seeks profit at the expense of human suffering (Prof. Castro and the other bad guy).
so then you agree that TEsis does not speak about an issue that solely affects the Spanish speaking people in that not addressing any national issue. and being Hollywoodish in technique you cannot call it a "Foreign Art Film" too.
and you are still saying that it is World Cinema? pardon my ignorance.
Your definition of World Cinema is more restrictive than mine.
That is fine with me; World Cinema means different things to different people.
There is no single widely accepted definition; it is therefore a term of limited usefulness.
I see no need to argue over it.
I would refer you to my previous posts above if my viewpoint is not clear.
Thank you for your interest.
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Agreed. World Cinema has different meanings in the modern world of different countries. you are right.
shareI feel the term World Cinema means films that are not in English. Sadly they are look upon as outside the norm. There is so much to discover out there when you look outside the English speaking films. But I dont need to tell people of this board that!
share