Locating World Cinema

Films mean different things to different audiences, whether local or global. Locating World Cinema begins with an introduction arguing for the primacy of the ‘local’ meaning of any film and the nuances that understanding the context of its creation and address bring to the spectator. It examines the socio-cultural contexts intrinsic to cinema from milieus like the USSR/Russia, China, Japan, France, the US, Iran and India. In doing so it analyses the work of some of the more celebrated but, at times, less than fully understood auteurs like Kenji Mizoguchi from Japan, Robert Bresson, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer from France, Abbas Kiarostami from Iran, Martin Scorsese from the US, Zhang Yimou from China and Aleksei German from Russia, the ultimate implications of whose work often depends on local socio-political contexts. Also examined is how the conditions of exhibition for arthouse cinema has transformed internationally on account of the film festival circuit, creating the ‘global art film’ that tries to bypass the local and address international audiences, directly. The book deals with complex ideas but is lucidly written, making it accessible to film students and lay persons alike.