What is Cinema? Critical Approaches Postcolonialism I

Lecture structure Cinema, colonialism and positive/negative images Spectator positioning Identification in The Battle of Algiers

Definitions of colonialism ‘the process by which the European powers (including the United States) reached a position of economic, military, political and cultural domination in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America’ (Stam and Spence, ‘Colonialism, Racism and Representation’, p. 315) ‘violence in its natural state’ (Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, p. 48)

1. Cinema, colonialism and positive/negative images Stam and Spence: the cinematic apparatus turns spectators into ‘armchair conquistadores’ (p. 316)

Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939): depicting indigenous North Americans as intruders

‘Stereotype analysis’ Oliver Twist (David Lean, 1948) Oliver Twist (Roman Polanski, 2005) ‘Stereotype analysis’ Eg Lester Friedman’s Hollywood’s Image of the Jew (1982)

‘Positive’ images were proposed as a corrective to stereotypes, but for whom are they positive?

2. Spectator positioning Stam and Spence: stereotype analysis privileges character and plot over registers specific to cinema. We should also consider ‘the mediations which intervene between “reality” and representation’ (p. 318), including narrative structure, genre conventions, film style and spectator positioning.

Classical feminist and postcolonial film theory intersect in their concern with film form and spectator positioning.

‘imagery of encirclement’

‘Which characters are afforded close-ups and which are relegated to the background? Does a character look and act, or merely appear, to be looked at and acted upon? With whom is the audience permitted intimacy? Is there is off-screen commentary or dialogue, what is its relation to the image?’ (Stam and Spence, ‘Colonialism, Racism and Representation’)

3. Identification in The Battle of Algiers Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag) in The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria, 1966): extended close- ups; encircled by French military

Saadi Yacef (second from left) Gillo Pontecorvo (on right)

‘How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas ‘How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film’ (Flyer for screening of The Battle of Algiers. The Pentagon, 2003.)

Influenced by Eisenstein, Italian neorealism and cinéma vérité

Stam and Spence: the film ‘controvert[s] traditional patterns of identification’ (p. 319); scale, sound and point of view editing encourage us to sympathise with the Algerian characters.

The women turn the mirror into a ‘revolutionary tool’ (ibid., p. 320).