DECEMBER ISSUE: FILM M M MediaMagazine eediadia agazine Menglish and media centre issue 26 | decemberM 2008 GGloballobal ffilmilm ccollaborationollaboration SStarstars WWaltzaltz wwithith BBashirashir NNoiroir & tthehe ccityity SShockinghocking ccinemainema english and media centre andmedia english SShanehane MMeadowseadows | issue 26 | december 2008 26|december | issue MM MM MediaMagazine is published by the English and article ‘Enter the Dragon’ is an essential and fact- Media Centre, a non-profit making organisation. packed read – look no further for an introduction The Centre publishes a wide range of classroom editorial to the cinema industries of South-East Asia. materials and runs courses for teachers. If Welcome back to MediaMag and our special All that should keep you busy over the you’re studying English at A Level, look out for Film issue – and if you’re wondering why we’re Christmas holidays ... But if you’ve got time on emagazine, also published by the Centre. not imbued with the seasonal festive spirit it’s your hands (ha!) sneak a visit to our amazing new feature: MediaMagClips, where you can The English and Media Centre because we’re bulging at the seams with cinema- view video soundbites on key concepts from 18 Compton Terrace related goodies. the great and the good in Media Studies (www. London N1 2UN Star studies and issues of representation mediamagazine.org.uk). Telephone: 020 7359 8080 are two of the major debates running through Fax: 020 7354 0133 this edition. Elaine Homer’s excellent overview Email for subscription enquiries: of critical approaches to the phenomenon of Next up: MediaMag 27 – [email protected] stardom should be a gift for Film students. Try The ‘Foreign’ Issue Managing Editor: Michael Simons reading them alongside our case studies on Tilda Aliens, monsters, and metaphors Editor: Jenny Grahame Swinton, and Brad’n’Ange (aka Mr and Mrs Smith) Japanese cinema Editorial assistant/admin: Rebecca Scambler – which in turn also raise interesting questions Design: Sam Sullivan (www.edition.co.uk) about gender representations and sexual politics. Persepolis Printed by S&G Group If you’re finding it hard to get your head round The US election – as seen by an Englishwoman ISSN: 1478-8616 these areas, a good starting point might be Steph in New York Hendry’s beginner’s guide to post-feminist film BrandRossSachsgate theory (yes, it’s pretty complex, but not as hard as it sounds, especially when applied to James Student writing – and much more. Bond). Representation issues also feature in Jerome From mid-December Monahan’s in-depth comparison of two classic Our first two galleries of MediaMagClips for film noirs (ideal texts for genre and comparative web-subscribers: study), Tom Brownlee’s overview of Christianity Professor Martin Barker on Media Audiences on film, and Martin Sohn-Rethel’s discussion of and Effects the authenticity and realism in The Lives of Others. Professor David Buckingham on Media In contrast, Wayne O’Brien’s article on Shocking Research, Globalisation, Ideology, Media 2.0, How to subscribe Cinema compares two highly contrasting and and the rest of the Universe. disturbing movies which question what we find Four issues a year, published shocking and why, and how such representations September, December, late February impact on audiences. and late April. International film is strongly represented, with a searching interview with Israeli director Ari Centre print subscription: £29.95 Folman on his unique animated docu-feature Centre website package: £79.95 Waltz with Bashir, and Nick Lacey’s fascinating includes print magazine, full website look at the importance of context, memory, access and a downloadable PDF and sub-text in three Spanish movies which deal with the horrors of the past. And for a version of the current issue. fantastically comprehensive, informative and Additional subscriptions for well-documented overview of global cinema students, teachers or the library can collaborations and the massive changes in non- Western film industries which are transforming be added to either the print-only Cover: From Hell, d. Allen Hollywood’s world domination, Roy Stafford’s subscription or the website package and Albert Hughes, 2001 for £10 a year. 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Centre website package: £79.95 2 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM contents Front Page News Dance of Death: Post-feminism in The latest news, reviews Waltz With Bashir contemporary film 04 and previews. 29 An interview with Ari 52 A beginners’ guide to the Folman, director of slippery and controversial FILM SPECIAL a powerful award- area of gender Somer(stown) winning Israeli animated representation in a post- Meadows Owen Davey documentary feature film. feminist era, as illustrated 06 pays a very personal by Bond ... James Bond. homage to Shane Meadows, the man and Moore and the Ahead of the his movies. movies 55 long-awaited launch of Enter the dragon Watchmen, Neil Daniels Power relationships Down these mean outlines the uneasy 10 between Hollywood streets: noir and relationship between the and the film industries 32 the city Jerome genius of Alan Moore’s of South-East Asia are Monahan investigates graphic novels, and their beginning to change. representations of the city rather less successful Roy Stafford surveys the in two classic post-war transfer to film. continuing rise of non- film noirs. Western cinema markets, Stealing someone’s Martin and the new forms of More than meets biography Sohn-Rethel raises issues collaboration between the eye Nick Lacey 63 about realism, truth, West and East. 36 explores the subtexts and meanings of three authenticity and ethics in outstanding Spanish representations of pre- films in the light of their Glasnost East Germany in historical and political the acclaimed film The Lives contexts. of Others. Hollywood film AND BEYOND FILMS techniques Cartoon by Ashes to Ashes shot- Star struck Elaine 40 Goom. by-shot Hone your Homer evaluates the Is nothing 59 textual analysis skills on 16 significance of stars past a key 5-minute sequence shocking? Two case and present, and suggests from the start of this five approaches to the 41 studies which will make you think about the much-loved time-travel study of the phenomenon cop drama, with Bethan of stardom. power of film to shock and push at boundaries. Hacking. Brangelina Sean Richardson explores Score! Football on film What can we learn 20 what a Hollywood super- couple can teach us about 44 about British culture theories of spectatorship, and social change from pleasure and gender. a football movie? Mark Ramey deconstructs Mike Tilda Swinton: Bassett: England Manager. queen of the So you think you The Gospels 25 avant-garde Ice- wanna work in TV? If maiden, gender-bender according to Mel, so, read our interview with Trevor, Bruce and 66 or alternative icon? 46 a Media graduate who’s Tom Brownlee Lucy Meade analyses Bilbo been there, done it, and examines representations the meanings of Tilda learned the hard way. Swinton’s ambiguous star of Christianity in film, persona. from Biblical epic to modern morality tale. english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 3 Front Page News E-Advertising former Russian president, film in a derelict shop in hard times – many have scriptwriter, and Guillermo The news that Channel 4 and Never Apologise in Blackburn turned out to been sacked in the US. The del Toro of Pan’s Labyrinth is to cut 150 jobs – nearly which actor Malcolm be unique footage of late subject was exhaustively and Hell Boy fame as its 15% of its workforce – McDowell tells tales of Victorian and Edwardian covered in October’s edition director. The two-film to trim £100 million in British director Lindsay England: The Mitchell and of Sight and Sound by package will be made expenditure over the Anderson. Kenyon collection. editor Nick James – well mostly in New Zealand – so next two years reflects the http://www. http://www.shcsurvey. worth reading as it is a expect more breathtaking tough times commercial neverapologize.com/#. org.uk/ great guide to a changing scenery, and art design and TV is going through, as a Veteran investigative http://www.bfi.org.uk/ landscape (http://www.bfi. special effects from the result of falling advertising documentary-maker John features/mk/ org.uk/sightandsound/ Weta studios as for LOTR. In revenues. Recently the Pilger has been at work issue.php). One worrying interview del Toro explains regulator Ofcom even for 50 years; a box set of Film trend for UK critics is his concerns about taking The credit crunch – no suggested that the likes of his work, Heroes, is now distributors’ habit of on The Hobbit as he likes to one is immune Channel 4 should benefit available and should be by-passing mainstream develop his own schemes; Know the old Chinese from some of the license on your school’s media critics, often to smuggle but the second movie will curse – ‘may you live fee money that currently resources shelves, if not poor product into cinemas be based on new material, through interesting times’? goes exclusively to the BBC. your own. The 16-disc without reviewers spoiling bridging the gap between Well we’re certainly doing, The steady migration of ensemble contains some the fun.