World cinema: contemporary perspectives

The concept of ‘world cinema’ is fraught with conceptual uncertainties, and has required nuance and precision in terms of its deployment in Film Studies.

Adrian Martin, at the ‘World Cinema Now’ conference (Monash University, 2011), contended that one of the primary ways in which ‘world cinema’ has been conceptualised is through ‘star auteur’, who come to represent their ‘national cinema’ through the film festival circuit and processes of valorisation.

This playlist is an attempt to highlight how ‘world cinema’ in Europe is represented on terrestrial television, resonating and chiming with this ‘star auteurs’ (Martin 2011) conceptual approach. It is necessary to posit that such an approach is limiting in terms of how it pares down an understanding of ‘world cinema’ to selected filmmakers. However, by engaging with the films screened on terrestrial television, it begins to emphasise how such a trend and tradition is consolidated to international audiences.

The playlist is organised according to emerging contemporary ‘traditions’ (Badley and Palmer 2006), such as allegory, memory, evocations of crisis, identity, and alienation.

Curator

Dr Jamie Steele, Bath Spa University

Subject

• Film Studies

Keywords

world cinema, film in television, star auteurs