Post-War European Films and the Concept of Auteur Essay

Post-War European Films and the Concept of Auteur - Essay Example The essay "Post-War European Films and the Concept of Auteur" describes the concept of the 'auteur', especially in the context of post-war European cinema, from the films of the Spanish director Almodovar. The paper also focuses on the different themes that can be found in the works of Almodovar, in order to explain why the 'auteur' is now an important part of contemporary European cinema. There have been a lot of developments in European cinema since the Second World War ended. Some of the filmmakers in Europe actually experimented with new ideas and concepts on how to make films, as well as on the very technique and purpose of filmmaking in itself. Some filmmakers experimented on social realism, while some also experimented in making magical realist, existentialist, psychological, and symbolic films. However, there is one particular development on post-war filmmaking in Europe that has caught the attention of the researcher, and this is the concept of 'auteur'. In fact, many popular European filmmakers are actually categorized by scholars of film studies as an example of an auteur, and one of the most famous is the Spanish director and filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, the director of the films â€Å"Matador,† â€Å"Hable con Ella,† and â€Å"Volver†. In order to explain the importance of the concept of the â€Å"auteur† in European cinema, it is important first to define this concept, especially in the context of post-war filmmaking in Europe. The word auteur is actually a French word, this word actually means the 'author'.... According to film scholars, the concept of the auteur actually refers to the original idea of the French filmmaker Francois Truffaut (1932-1984), who in his manifesto â€Å"The Policy of Auteurs,† declared that â€Å"Cinema as an art made by a filmic artist and not by a writer,† wherein the filmic artist, or the filmmaker, is actually the auteur (â€Å"Truffaut’s manifesto: La Politique des Auteurs† n. p.). In this case, then, the concept of the auteur actually emphasizes the role of the filmmaker (or the director in that case), in the creation of the film itself, wherein the film is actually a creative product of the auteur (the filmmaker); also, it then follows that films actually represent the filmmakers actual creative vision (â€Å"Truffaut’s manifesto: La Politique des Auteurs† n. p.). In this case, in the treatise of Truffaut, he actually argues that despite the involvement of film in an industrial or commercial process, wherein elemen ts of the studio may heavily determine the outcome of the film; but the theory of auteur still actually holds that the creative voice (or the creative elements) of the film still actually shines out, and this come from the artistic and creative viewpoint of the auteur (â€Å"Truffaut’s manifesto: La Politique des Auteurs† n. p.). In this case, the theory of â€Å"auteurism† actually came out from this concept, wherein films can actually be analyzed or understood according to the different characteristics and themes of the auteur, and wherein common themes of the auteur can actually be identified with his works (â€Å"Truffaut’s manifesto: La Politique des Auteurs† n. p.). In fact, the concept of the auteur actually contributed much to the development of post

Intelligence Challenges in Homeland Security Essay

Intelligence Challenges in Homeland Security - Essay Example Government and policy maker should consider intelligence community activities are welcomed just as civil liberty is respected. Moreover, the acceptance of the intelligence community activates ease the tension created through their course of duties. Public debate and civil society’s participation also ensure that people understand the reason and purpose of the intelligence community.2 The security of a country depends on the success or failure of the intelligence community. Intelligence community has grown over for more than 30 years and has evolved with the advent of new technology to support the functions of government in the provision of services to the citizens. Therefore, a balance between civil liberty and intelligence community ensures that people are secured with all that government offers, and their life is protected.3 The current governments are formed through a democratic process and, therefore, intelligence community need to respects the values of democracy to deceive it activities with dictatorship. One of the important measures that balances civil liberty with the intelligence community is the institutionalization of civil society.4 I agree that civil liberties hinder efficient collection of intelligence information from individuals and corporations. The right of liberty guarantees people from surveillance by people and government without their knowledge. Therefore, to ensure that security is guaranteed by the government agencies civil liberties and intelligence community activities should strike a balance. I concur that the engagement of civil societies and public debate ensures that people understands the roles of the intelligence community and thus offers assistance rather that threatening on civil suits. However, public participation may post a threat to national security as not all information is supposed to be shared, it is essential to make people aware of the need for intelligence collection. I agree that the intelligence

Cross Cultural Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Cross Cultural Communication - Essay Example Conceptually, the aspect of ‘cross-cultural communication’ can be apparently viewed as a mix of various other fields that include ‘cultural studies’, ‘psychological studies’, ‘anthropological studies ’and ‘communication’. Specially mentioning, cross-cultural communication acts as a push factor assisting the management of diverse organisations to follow appropriate communication based strategies (Tonnen, 2004). This type of communication has intense implications in the development of critical understanding about social relationships. Arguably, it is in this context that analysing social relationships along with the working styles of different cultures often acts as the foundation of successful global business associations (Jayakumaran, n.d.). This essay aims at critically evaluating the major facets of Hall’s high along with low context cultural models and analysing two nations falling into each category, i.e. Japan and India for high context culture and Australia and Germany for low context culture model. Moreover, the essay would also analyse four instances of business communication with illustration to particular corporations operating in the selected four countries in correspondence to each context cultural model based on Hall’s theory. Hall’s contextual model of culture describes how different cultures prefer the use of higher contextual messaging for making regular communication rather than using lower contextual messaging techniques. The model also helps in understanding the effects of culture on the communication process (Lange & Paige, 2003).The major facets of Hall’s high along with low context cultural model have been described in the following. Cultures belonging to higher context cultural model generally follow the notion of collectivism as they focus towards prioritizing the welfare of society rather than being concerned over individual benefits. It can be viewed that high context cultural model is

Politics and Sport Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Politics and Sport - Essay Example The ideology has the tendency to promote mobility socially, fight for the rights of the society occupants most so the women. At the same time the ideology fights for equality in inclusion between the minority and the majority in the society as they try to promote policies that exploit new ways of doing sports as they emerge (Riordan 2007, p.2). The impacts of the ideology on sports has since died in Europe specifically the USSR with most of its impacts still only being felt in the countries of the far East like China, Cuba and North Korea. Countries most so the ones which did not practice communist sports got interested in the game after the countries like Germany and Soviet Union excelled in the Olympics (Riordan 1978, p.16). Therefore, they wanted to know how such countries were treating sports. The findings were much extensive; the ideology tries to use models of sports that transform the society from handling sports in a traditional manner into a modern manner. Sports is used to promote important life issues like health and hygiene, productivity of the people, defense or even the integration of diverse ethnic communities of a country (Lee and Bairner 2009, p.97). Communism and sports derived a basis from the fact that most of the countries that practiced it had a lot of rural and illiterate population. Communism presents sports as an agent of social change as guided by the state, hence the essence of the leisure classes which used to be held after revolutions or liberations (Senn and Riordan 1992, p.43). Certain theories under communist ideology stressed on the importance of steadiness in the physical as well as the mental states of the human beings. This prompted and encouraged sports a lot as it was considered wise and vital to develop the mental and the physical aspects of the population alongside the other. Most of the communists’ countries posses’ political instability as an issue of controversy coupled with less economic and social

Business law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 18

Business law - Essay Example The courts might have used the written law to make their judgments. Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice for destroying of potential evidence by shredding their documents which could have been used by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency of the US Government With the primary responsibility for regulation of securities markets. Under US GAAP, the only acceptable method of financial reporting is consolidation of controlled entities .non consolidation can only occur under specific conditions Outside USA; consolidated financial reporting is called group accounting and is required when one entity owns more than half of the other entity and can dictate its operations. Consolidating financial reporting is complex and requires financial statements to be combined and reported as a single financial report. Enron failed to comply with this ethic Enron major crime was misrepresentation and misleading the general public about their financial position. Enron did not disclose its real financial figures. The major requirement in US financial reporting is disclosure of information. The disclosure requirement is based on the premise that markets are efficient. Enron traded on future contracts called derivatives because they derived their value from underlying assets. The market of the contracts reduces the volatility of prices by fixing a price at a future date. Example assume Enron have two option contracts matching the same amount of a commodity over the same period of time. One contract was to purchase the commodity while other contract was to sell the commodity. Enron looked on to the future on the assumption that contracts were exercised and there were net results. After evaluating all cost, the net income (loss) was estimated. The net income (loss) was discounted to its present value and recorded as loss. Earnings reported under the market to market were easy to manipulate because active markets for contracts dating

Communication in Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Communication in Economics - Essay Example Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winning economist argues that the move to raise the minimum wage would not lead to job loss because big companies like McDonalds cannot replace workers by machines nor move these jobs overseas. However, the implications may not be the same for small companies. According to the U.S Department of Labor, raising the minimum wage can be beneficial to the economy, for instance, it would reduce employee turnover and increase consumer purchasing power. Increasing the minimum wage may be beneficial to those who receive it even though this might have little impact on the U.S economy. Therefore, it is prudent to review critically the move by L.A to increase the minimum wage from a socio-political dimension rather than an economical point of view. It is high time that the electorate figure out the motive of many elected officers as that of garnering votes rather than boosting the

INDUSTRIAL MARKETING Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

INDUSTRIAL MARKETING - Coursework Example In the short term, such a growth strategy can be incredibly effective for several reasons. The first is the visual of it. Acquiring new companies is a sign of growth and vigour for a company, which makes investors find the company more desirable, artificially inflating its value. But the real statistics of growth would also, in the short term, be very positive, showing a new growth in assets as well as operating revenue year over year. 2. This growth strategy failed for several reasons. In one way, it was doomed to fail from the start. This is because the fundamental structure was actually somewhat akin to a pyramid scheme. As it acquired more and more companies it became more and more difficult to find other companies to acquire, and eventually this would have limited its field of growth in a fundamental way. But the failures of management at Worldcom also ensured that this collapse happened sooner than it might have had to. The company never streamlined its acquisitions to take advantages of economies of scale. Yet the costs of managing more and more small, subdivided companies, handling the massive amounts of different kinds of structures, billing systems, accounting systems and so on would grow. So the sum of all of the acquired companies was, with every new acquisition, actually somewhat less efficient than they had been pre-acquisition. For a short period of time the new acquisitions would be able to paper o ver this inefficiency, at least superficially, but the venture was destined to failure unless major integration efforts were pursued, which they never were. In an attempt to continue the superficial image of success, the company undertook malfeasance in their accounting techniques, further harming their long term chances of success. 3. It took such a long time for several reasons. One is that every indicator of success that businesses usually tend to measure would have been positive - operating income, net