In this paper I attempt to understand feminist film theory not as the development of an autonomous and absolute theoretical construction, bu t as a manifesto, fraught with contradictions and difficulties which make the whole movement all the more significant, and at the same time historically determinant. Tracing some historically decisive moments in the development of feminist film theory in the 1970s, I introduce some crucial arguments and debates discussed by feminists with different political positions during the period, and in so doing argue that because of the ways in which feminist film theory tried to negotiate the difficult relationship between film theory and film practice it inevitably faced a theoretical impasse which nonetheless opened up other questions and problems latent in the semiotic / linguistic model, a dominant model in the 1960s and 70s film theory. My intention is to show that this is precisely why feminist film theory was and still is important, problematic as it is, today.

ln this essay, I discuss the processes whereby the American film industry assimilated theatrical melodrama into motion pictures around 1908, in terms of the films’ narrative form and their promotion. At the level of narrative form, theatrical melodrama certainly includes some norms not port of classical cinema (e.g. protracted situationsr coincidence, and deus ex machina), but other factors such as thrills and moral extremes were likely to be adapted by the rising classical cinema. At the level of promotion, under the context in which the industry attempted both to gain “respectability” and maintain the working-class audience, the industry presented their pictures as if they had been heterogeneous to “vulgar” theatrical melodrama. Importantly, these processes were executed while the industry relied on the melodramatic conventions that served to guarantee the attendance in nickelodeons as well as sustain the mass production. In addition, once assimilated into films, melodrama functioned as moral lessons that the dominant groups expected, and, simultaneously, as an amusement to entertain the lower class audience. Considering melodrama as a powerful force that contributed to the development of the American film industry, we need to understand it not only as an alternative genre or feminine form, but also its relation to diverse socio-cultural spheres.

À la fin des années vingt, l’avènement du parlant a bouleversé l’histoire du cinéma qui était considéré comme un art “universel”. Depuis le cinéma doit faire face à la barrière des langues, car les spectateurs ont besoin d’un intermédiaire pour comprendre des films étrangers.

On connaît deux solutions à présent : le sous-titrage et le doublage. Cependant on a dû faire plusieurs tentatives expérimentales avant de choisir les deux. Chronologiquement, on a inventé les “sous-titres”, “adaptations”, “versions multiples” et le “doublage” pendant les quelques années où le muet mourant et le parlant naissant coexistaient. Parmi ces stratégies audacieuses et curieuses pour passer un film étranger, le doublage s’est finalement imposé en premier, et accessoirement le sous-titrage a survécu, en abandonment les autres moyens médiocres et plus coûteux.

À propos de la préférence pour le doublage en France, je peux remarquer qu’il y a eu quelques années de décalage à l’arrivée entre le sous-titrage et le doublage et que ce n’était pas exactement la même alternative qu’aujourd’hui. Après que le premier avait été complètement refusé, ayant une image de “retour au muet” en raison de l’excès de lecture imposée sous forme d’intertitres, symbole du muet, le dernier est apparu avec retard.

Rethinking on entrance of sound to Soviet cinema would be a good start to reconsider the process of Stalinization of Soviet cinema. The process of entrance of sound run almost parallel to Stalinization. Works of Diga Vertov present a particular sample to investigate the theme. Vertov developed a way of description of autonomous sound already in silent era. The way of sound description was slightly different from contemporary avant-gard directors, Eizenshtein and Aleksandrov. But the Vertov’s dealing with sound as autonomous factor was continued even in Stalin era. And it became an important factor of cinema of Stalinism. And Vertov described many kinds of noise, which is linked the Russian futurists concept “zaym”. In silent era for Vertov noises as “zaum” is oriented to produce the pure rhythm. And after the entrance of sound, Vertov’s touch to sound is gradually shifted from “zaum” to language. And this appeared in use of music also. Music was autonomous from other factors in cinema, and played a key part in Vertov’s film. We can find these features in Stalinism film of Aleksandrov and P’riev. In this paper rethinking the continuity from Vertov to the cinema of Stalin era on briefly three points. Autonomous sound, noise and constitution of music.

Dans le troisième volet de notre étude qui se propose d’analyser l’évolution du discours critique consacré à l’œuvre de René Clair (voir les deux articles précédemment parus dans l’Iconics, Nos. 55 et 56), nous abordons la période d’après-guerre 1947–1957, allant de la sortie du Silence est d’or jusqu’à celle de Porte des Lilas. Nous examinerons plus particulièrement, d’une part, l’étroite relation que Clair entretenait avec Henri Langlois, notamment à l’occasion des expositions et des rétrospectives organisées par ce dernier, et de l’autre, l’optique qu’adoptait André Bazin à son égard, à travers de nombreux articles où il commentait, directement ou indirectement, l’œuvre du cinéaste. Par ces deux arguments, nous démontrerons que la période en question était celle où le plus renommé des réalisateurs français se voyait consacré comme descendant ultime de la tradition française du cinéma, et par cela même, considéré aussi comme piégé par sa propre consécration, qui risquait de le condamner à se répéter, lui privant de toute possibilité d’un renouvellement de soi.

Ainsi, à la veille de la Nouvelle Vague, Clair était soumis à deux perspectives aussi distinctes que complémentaires: celle du retour au passé du cinéma, et celle du renouvellement du cinéma actuel. Positionnement,il va sans dire, qui aura de lourdes conséquences dans la période suivante...

Recently we can see a lot of contemporary artists take photographic approach in their works. The way they take is not the one in traditional photography that aimed at an autonomous artwork but one based on a different way of thinking of photography, where we can cut, copy, and transform by computer processing. They see photography not as a certain genre of art but as a way of expression.

Contemporary photography, then, inquires of the reality that was thought to be essential for its existence. And its concreteness, its necessity of objects throw out a question towards the autonomous way of thinking that modernism has aimed at for a long time. It also offers the intention of a new relationship between us and the world. We can see the indication especially in its simulational or appropriative approach.

Taking a photographic approach today is to transform our conventional way of seeing and thinking about things which we have taken for granted since the birth of photography. This indicates a new form of visual approach.

In my previous research, I have presented an automatic construction of Multimedia Database (MMDB) related to different types of contents, using the Shot-Changed -Point-Search (SCPS) algorithm. ln this study, I have given a methodology needed to generate MMDB, related to Video data. For this purpose I have constructed World Wide Web (WWW) oriented MMDB, useful to realize objective oriented applications (i.e., video data). In my approach, I have presented an image in 2-dimensional space by a value, which is the base of my image search method. Accordingly, a prototype MMDB system has been constructed based on my frame work, in which I have also, a user supported GUI (Graphical User Interface) to manage large quantities of user’s data.