Smart Cinema: Wise Cinematography From Indieworld
Abstract
The author analyses one of the most important paths of American independent cinema of the 1990s – smart cinema. He describes the context of production and distribution, and places it in the landscape of indieworld – the phenomenon developing over the last 25 years in the United States. Then he traces the most important features of smart films, focusing on their conservative aesthetics and worldview, but also on the question of irony and random chance and coincidence. He argues that smart films are the antithesis of the beloved family film, but at the same time they express a longing for the principles of American social relations. The author creates a preliminary outline of a phenomenon and lists its principle creators: Paul Thomas Anderson, Tamara Jenkins, Alexandre Payne, Todd Solondz and others. He also compares smart cinema with quirky cinema.
Keywords:
smart cinema, quirky cinema, irony, indieworldReferences
Collins, Jim. Genericity in the 90s: Eclectic Irony and the New Sincerity. W: Film Theory Goes to the Movies. red. J. Collins, H. Radner, A. Preacher Collins. New York: Routledge, 1993
Google Scholar
Dargis, Mamohla. Whatever: The new nihilism. „LA Weekly”, 26.11.1998
Google Scholar
Hirschorn, Michael. Quirked Around. The Unbearable Lightness of Ira Glass, Wes Anderson, and other Paragons of Indie Sensibility. „Atlantic Monthly” 9 (2007)
Google Scholar
King, Geoff. Indiewood, USA: Where Hollywood meets Independent Cinema. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755697076
Google Scholar
Perkins, Claire. American Smart Cinema. Edinburgh: University Press, 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748646548
Google Scholar
Sconce, Jeffrey. Irony, Nihilism and the New American „Smart” Film. „Screen” t. 43, nr 4 (2002)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/43.4.349
Google Scholar
Turan, Kenneth. Fade ID Pitch Black. „Los Angeles Times”, 22.11.1998.
Google Scholar
Authors
Rafał Syskakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Historyk filmu, doktor habilitowany w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ. Autor książek: Film i przemoc. Sposoby obrazowania filmowych aktów przemocy (2003), Zachować dystans. Filmowy świat Roberta Altmana (2008), Poezja obrazu. Filmy Theo Angelopoulosa (2008), Filmowy neomodernizm (2014). Redaktor Słownika filmu, a obecnie współredaktor wielotomowych publikacji Mistrzowie kina amerykańskiego i Historia kina. Stypendysta Fundacji Tygodnika „Polityka”, Fundacji na rzecz Nauki Polskiej i Fundacji Kościuszkowskiej. W 2012 r. przebywał jako scholar visiting na Columbia University. Założyciel i redaktor naczelny magazynu „Ekrany”. Kurator wystawy Stanley Kubrick w Muzeum Narodowym w Krakowie. Dyrektor Narodowego Centrum Kultury Filmowej w Łodzi.
Statistics
Abstract views: 51PDF downloads: 36
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Rafał Syska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Rafał Syska, To Touch a Movie: Technical Conditions of the Phenomenon of Film in a Museum , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 113 (2021): Film and Technology
- Rafał Syska, The Memory of Film: Memorative Art in Cinema Museums , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 125 (2024): Cinema as a Memory Machine
- Rafał Syska, Charm of a Harlot: “Maddalena” by Jerzy Kawalerowicz , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 95 (2016): Transnational Dimension of Polish Cinema
- Rafał Syska, Film as a Building Site , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 91 (2015): Film Between Pop Music and Pop Culture
- Rafał Syska, Traces of Unmade Movies , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 89-90 (2015): Redefinitions of the Classics
