نشریه رهپویه هنرهای نمایشی
پیاپی 9 (پاییز 1402)

The Hollywood cinematic system has been filled with unwritten rules since its inception, shaping its main framework. These rules encompass a wide range of topics, from formal matters to underlying issues such as political economy, sociological, and cultural aspects, always regulating a mechanism to prevent any field outside its rules from emerging and developing. This study aims to initially approach the Hollywood system from a mass perspective and utilize the viewpoints of Theodor Adorno and Dwight Macdonald for explanation and expansion. Subsequently, a more in-depth sociological perspective will be taken towards internal discussions, using the classic realist text issue and relevant theoretical approaches to clarify the conflict between form and ideology in the Hollywood system. The research will incorporate the ideas of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to enhance the proposal, unify the research approach, and broaden the sociological concepts in the two referenced methodologies.

Animation is considered an artistic and captivating media for children that can make the impossible world possible for them. Therefore, it can be utilized to convey concepts to children. Death is an enigmatic concept for both humans and children. It is essential to introduce the truth to a child in a way that avoids instilling fear or horror. Animation is a suitable media to express the concept with a realistic perspective because the child may unintentionally find himself in an environment and conditions where his loved ones die. Mysticism serves as a method to explore the concept of death, fostering an inner connection with God’s essence. The mystic’s task is to understand this essence through direct, intuitive knowledge. Allameh Mohammad Taqi Ja’fari, from Islamic philosophers and thinkers, has presented special views and opinions about discovering the truth of death through the lens of mysticism.  The animated film “The Book of Life” is an attractive and childlike work presenting the theme of death. It reflects the religion of the country of Mexican cultural and religious themes where the afterlife is depicted as a world without fear and terror.  The current research was conducted with a mystical approach, and its main issue is the analysis of the concept of death in “The Book of Life” based on the opinions of Allameh Ja’fari. The animated film “The Book of Life” presents a charming and childlike perspective on death, reflecting Mexican cultural themes where the afterlife is depicted without fear. This research adopts a mystical approach, focusing on analyzing the concept of death in “The Book of Life” through Allameh Ja’fari’s views.The qualitative research method is descriptive-analytical and based on collecting information from library sources and audio-visual archives. The animated film “The Book of Life” shows the connection between the world of the dead and the living through the celebration of the Day of the Dead, and the displayed image of death for children has become possible without creating fear.

The world of the films defines the situation and assigns roles to each character, effectively reproducing the dynamics of “dominion.” By proposing the theory of language and symbolic power and explaining the complex relations between “power” and “language”, Pierre Bourdieu has discussed how dominance is formed in societies. In the movie The Miracle Worker, a child named Helen Keller is deprived of the most basic means of entering the field, i.e. language, and the lack of language (as the most basic means of communication) has made her unable to communicate meaningfully. Based on the analytical descriptive method, the present research investigates the relations of domination in the structure of the film, The Miracle Worker. During this adaptation, this research focuses on how “language” in the movie serves as symbolic capital to equip Helen Keller for social engagement and to achieve symbolic power. By examining the discussed sample, it is concluded that the basic role of language in the power structure and its application at the level of individual and collective agency requires special attention and people, while being aware of its dual use, to gain a place in the world Dominance and power require the communicative action of language before any action.

The works of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a leading figure of the New Wave of Turkish cinema, deserve examination from various aspects due to their artistic and philosophical values, global influences, and standing. Analyzing his narrative world and characters through philosophical approaches, or better yet, linking his cinema with philosophy, aids in a deeper understanding of his work. This is because his mindset and concerns manifest in the characteristics and ways of being of the characters in his films. In Ceylan’s works, there are Flâneur characters who, by being situated in the story’s setting and expressing their inner thoughts, contribute to advancing the narrative and discovering meaning through the changes that arise from their strolling. While expanding on the modern concept of Flâneurie, Walter Benjamin perceives the Flâneur as an individual with contradictory thoughts who seeks to resolve perceptual discrepancies between the inner and outer worlds by existing between the past and modernity. From his perspective, the Flâneur is positioned on the threshold, reinterpreting the past while passing through it during the process of Flâneurie, yet does not fully belong to modernity or the changed world. This research examines Ceylan’s latest work based on this approach, focusing on place as a physical context for the possibility of Flâneurie events and its reciprocal influence on the mind as a non-physical space for thought formation and change creation. Initially, four main components of Benjaminian Flânerie (wandering) —comprising the process of Flânerie, being on the threshold, reinterpreting the past, and contradictory thoughts—are extracted from related concepts. This demonstrates that in the film “About Dry Grasses,” the characters are Flâneurs, and Ceylan’s narrative world can be understood by analyzing his characters’ act of Flânerie (wandering). This research adopts a qualitative approach with a descriptive and analytical method. The data collection method is library-based, utilizing both written and electronic documents.

The discovery of the concept of the unconscious by Sigmund Freud was one of the history-making trends of the 20th century. Like other abstract concepts, understanding the unconscious was not simply possible, and its content could only be accessed through concrete manifestations. Defense mechanisms are one of the concrete examples of the existence of the unconscious in a person’s mind, and reflection on how they occur provides useful information about the unconscious. This research was initiated to examine the impacts of these mechanisms on daily life and to find out how to recognize them. Studying the basic principles of Freud’s theories was the first step to recognize and understanding this category of unconscious reactions. The world of drama became the basis of this research, and its purpose was to comprehend how defense mechanisms appear in dramatic characters in the play “From Behind the Glasses” by Akbar Radi. Demonstrators were placed in the experiment as examples of real people. Their behavior and dialogues during the play were analyzed with a psychoanalytic view, and through them, data was obtained from the mind and unconscious, which led to the understanding of how psychological defense mechanisms appear in these characters. The research findings indicate that the characters in these three plays primarily use projection as a means to alleviate anxiety. In literature and art, especially in its dramatic form, one can find many characters who, relying on Freud’s theories, pay attention to psychoanalytical aspects and the appearance of defense mechanisms and carefully examine them. This research has tried to be able to take a step towards informing the readers by providing even a little information about the mechanism of the human mind.

The relationship between time and our surroundings has long been one of the most controversial topics in our lives. The significance of this will increase if we consider it a basic part of a medium like cinema, as it directly impacts how viewers perceive and respond to films. The researcher first explains the time factor in cinema and then especially focuses on the time in slow cinema. The research explains different types of time in slow cinema and mentions some film samples to help readers understand the content more precisely. The research is renowned because the researcher concentrates on the most complex matter in cinema: time patterns in films. The subject becomes more important when someone wants to point to some characteristics that distinguish cinema from other art forms. Time is the most crucial factor that signifies this art. It proclaims and separates the cinema from other similar arts, such as painting and photography. Both of these arts are known as the static arts; we don’t see any motion in paintings or photos, but moving images in the cinema always have motion, and this is because of the time passing through the image. Cinema explores various types of time. Some of them are as follows: dead time, no time, collapsing time, fluid time, emotional time, lock time, and crystalline time; the last case is the most important one in this research that refers to the relation between subjectivity and objectivity in the film world. Gilles Deleuze, a prominent philosopher of cinema, proposes a time pattern. He mentions four crystalline patterns: full crystal, cracked crystal, soapy crystal, and shattered crystal. The type or form of the crystal depends on the balance between objectivity and subjectivity. Among these forms, the most recent and significant is the one that best reflects our reality, where our subjective experiences coexist with the external world. This duality also applies to the films created by artists.