National Cinema, Transnationalism and Globalisation
National cinema as an organising principle for film histories z
Andrew Higson
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Hollywood as America’s national cinema?
Implicit in the organisation of this module: sessions on German expressionism, Soviet montage cinema, Italian neo-realism, the new waves of France, Britain and Brazil; But also 7 American films (Hollywood films?)
Hollywood as global cinema?
Chaplin, a British actor, but here representing American cinema, straddling the world. (‘Charlot’ was how he was known to his French fans.)
Global Hollywood • The studios are small parts of huge multi-national corporations; • Hollywood filmmakers and actors come from all over the world; • Hollywood films are distributed around the world.
Americanisation/Glocalisation? z
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Glocalisation: think ‘HSBC – the world’s local bank’ (HSBC = The Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation) Hollywood and the ‘glocal’: e.g. funding the production of English heritage… Pride and Prejudice, 2005
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Thompson and Bordwell on global Hollywood
Defining globalisation Thompson and Bordwell define globalisation as “the emergence of networks of influence that tightened the ties among all countries and their citizens” (p. 705). Features include: A common global popular culture Systems of communication that compress time and space Concentration of ownership and control
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various forms of regional resistance (e.g. Film Europe in the 1920s) the emergence of new, dispersed, diasporic and virtual communities, global subcultures the process of glocalisation
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‘Film Europe – no longer a theory!’ (Film Kurier [German film paper], 7.8.28)
What is a national cinema? z
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multinational ownership; studios part of huge media / entertainment / leisure corporations (synergy, branding / intellectual copyright); investment in multiplex circuits markets around the world; distribution of the same or very similar products in markets around the world.
Little sense of a critique of globalisation in Thompson and Bordwell
Other more democratic developments z
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Is it the film industry (production, distribution, exhibition)? Is it selected traditions or movements? Is it all films made in a particular country? Is it all films with a particular national setting or theme?
A common global culture means cultural homogenisation; Concentration of ownership may limit the range and types of representation made available; In terms of British cinema: the consistently most popular films are Hollywood films (promoting American values?); British filmmakers struggle to make British films…
Global culture
Local culture/British cinema: East is East
National cinema as industrial infrastucture? z
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Industrial infrastructure: the production, distribution and exhibition of films within a particular nation; Government film policies often about protecting and sustaining indigenous industry; As such, often dependent on inward investment from Hollywood…
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Film movements as the embodiment of national cinemas?
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National cinema: all films set in e.g. Britain?
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1. German expressionism 2. Soviet montage cinema
Gosford Park, UK 2002: directed by Robert Altman – American
3. The British new wave 4. The French new wave
Match Point, UK 2005: directed by Woody Allen, American
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National cinema: all films with e.g. a British setting or theme?
How does a cinema become national? 1.
National cinema draws on established indigenous cultural traditions (a familiar national iconography, values, character types etc).
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A national cinema is defined by its difference from other national cinemas.
• Advertisement for MGM’s 1940 production of Pride and Prejudice
But the concept of national culture, or indigenous tradition, is highly problematic, highly contested…
But national borders are rarely able to contain cultural practices and identities, which frequently cross borders (the transnational…)
Advertisement for Columbia’s 1996 production of Sense and Sensibility
The implications of transnationalism and cultural border crossing Given the popularity of Hollywood films in Britain since the 1910s, should we identify Hollywood as Britain’s national cinema? “Hollywood can hardly be conceived as totally other since so much of any nation’s film culture is implicitly Hollywood.” (Thomas Elsaesser) What are the implications of this hybridising of culture? What impact does it have on established cultural traditions? How do ‘local’ audiences respond to this cultural border crossing?
Slumdog Millionaire, UK 2009 z z
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A British film? UK production company, Celador; some UK funding; a British lead director, Danny Boyle But set in India, with Indian characters…
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Slumdog Millionaire: an Indian film? z
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Indian characters, Indian settings and Indian source novel (Q & A, by Vikas Swarup); most of crew Indian – incl. Loveleen Tandan, co-director; one third of dialogue in Hindi. But not an Indian-led or Indian-funded production; lead male star was British-Asian…
Slumdog Millionaire as transnational production? z
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A British-initiated production, shot in India about Indian characters, with dialogue in Hindi and English, a UK-led but Indian staffed production crew, and Hollywood funding and distribution. Mixes elements from different cultural contexts – western and Indian:
Slumdog Millionaire: a Hollywood film? z
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The complexity and perversity of contemporary filmmaking z z z
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Films like Slumdog Millionaire rarely respect national boundaries: At the level of production, money, actors and creative personnel come from different national contexts… At the level of representation, mixing elements from different cultural contexts… At the level of exhibition, shown at film festivals and in cinemas around the world. Transnational films may aspire to globalisation, but less about corporate power, more about partnership; Attending to the local, or mixing aspects of different localities; moving beyond traditional ideas of national cultural identities…
Small-budget, specialist film: $15m International/global distribution: released in at least 67 territories (+ festivals) Major crossover success at box-office:
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• Who Wants to be a Millionaire ; • Hindi popular cinema (Bollywood).
The circumstances of transnational cinema
Funding from Warner Independents, specialist arm of Hollywood studio; Distributed in USA by Fox Searchlight, specialist arm of another Hollywood studio.
$47m UK box office to date $141m US box-office $155m box-office in other countries $343m total b-o to date
So – a small film, about local developments; but a transnational production (UK/US/India); and global distribution and box-office success…
Beyond national cinema? z
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Do we still need films that set out to represent a nation for itself and to itself? If we don’t have national cinemas, then what happens to national identities and established cultural traditions?
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The ethics of Slumdog Millionaire z
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Whose film this is, who is in control of the process of representation, and what is being represented? Salman Rushdie: “A feelgood movie about the dreadful Bombay slums, an opulently photographed movie about extreme poverty, a romantic, Bollywoodised look at the unromantic underbelly of India – well – it feels good, right?” (The Guardian, 28.2.09) “To watch your home town’s story being told in this comically absurd, tawdry fashion is, finally, to grow annoyed.” Audiences think “that what they are seeing is authentic; but it’s still tourism.” Dynamical transnational cinema or irresponsible neo-colonial exoticism, first world tourism, global adventurism?
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