HUGO - Review

The film is based on the the book ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ and is directed buy the famous Martin Scorsese, following the story of Hugo (Asa Butterfield); a boy lives in a train station. He Steals food and parts from the shops in the station to repair a human like machine that his farther had worked on with him before he died, believing that it can write a message the his father left to him.
However the Toy Maker (Ben Kingsley) takes a note book from his which contains his plans to fix the machine and in his attempts to recover it he ends up becoming involved in a story that the Toy Maker wants every one to forget. Meeting the toy makers adopted god daughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) and avoiding the station’s Inspector; Gustav. (Sacha Baron Cohen).

There is far more to this film then the premise I outline though, the film its self is almost a love letter to early cinema; celebrating early cinema works and the many vast masterpieces that remain only in our memories with so many films lost to the world. It also has the spirit of a great adventure; personified in the film by the character of Isabelle and her love of the great literary adventure classics as well as her craving for an adventure of her own. The film almost exclusively follows Hugo through the story, with a few shifts now and again to following Inspector Gustav and his nervous advances to talk to a flower shop girl he likes.

While at the films climax you see that perhaps the most important character is the Toy Maker; being the Sun that the people of Hugo’s universe end up revolving around while Hugo is the catalyst that allows him to shine again. Seeing everything from his perspective we ourselves become the child, unknowing of the circumstances that led to these characters situations at the start of the film while demanding answers. As Hugo comes to understand more as the film goes on, the credit goes to Butterfield for playing Hugo in a way that makes us want to follow him like everyone else he meets seems drawn to believe in him.


The film draws from quite a diverse talent pool, the main children in the film perform brilliantly, Butterfield really gives a strong, childlike and honest performance during the film, as you would expect from his earlier movies, naturally Ben Kingsley is always on his top form and even Christopher Lee, Jude Law and Ray Winstone also appear in roles that add to the really wonderful feel of the movie; showing off the star pulling power Scorsese has.


While the film is mostly live action there are times when CGI is employed as well, these tend to be the most magical moments of the film, one particular example I have to mention is a breathtaking scene when a case full drawings get blown through a room, you see images flashing by so fast they animate before your eyes; you suspend belief for a few seconds as your introduced to a life times worth of work in a few seconds and every second of it is wonderful as it is imaginative in its cinematography.

Now one of the big focuses on this movie is its use of 3D. The Film was heavily marketed as the next big 3D movie and it does seem to me that lately 3D tends to be justified more in its use given the price mark up to see films in 3D, while a lot of films do tend to either over use 3D or focus purely on cheap gimmick uses of it. Naturally big wise shots of the landscape also evoke this kind of feeling in how they flow in and out of each other, the opening shot of the film is the most grabbing example as it flows so well introducing us to the train station them final Hugo in one beautiful shot, drawing you into the movie. Even the transition of the clock gears ticking into a birds eye view of the city makes for a beautiful metaphor. Its impressive that the whole film manages to keep up its magical opening scene throughout the film, it offers escapism by the bucket load if you allow yourself to be drawn in to its magical world.

Hugo is nothing short of a masterpiece in film and really deserves every award nomination it has been given. It stays true to the roots of cinema that the film itself shows you and uses 3D in the way that it should be. If you want some good time, go and see it. Its a spectacular achievement in film making that must not be avoided.

Naad

The Cosmic Sound is the essence of all sounds. It creates perfect balance with the 5 elements of the universe: earth, fire, air, water & sky. For an individual to merge with the universal consciousness through the medium of music, he/she must speak to the universe using the language of NAAD, and this will connect her/him with the eternal universe. It is the magic created by this very art that people of different nations and backgrounds are able to communicate, understand and connect with each other in a beautiful way.
 Naad tunes our minds and opens our hearts to the very infinite depth of our souls.  Infinity, as Naad, has no limits and has divine power in it; hence once you get in touch with the power of Naad, you will immediately begin to understand the divine power of the universe. Or let us just say “Naad is the Musical Language of the Universe”.

Gestalt theory

Gestalt theory was the outcome of concrete investigations in psychology, logic, and epistemology. The prevailing situation at the time of its origin may be briefly sketched as follows. We go from the world of everyday events to that of science, and not unnaturally assume that in making this transition we shall gain a deeper and more precise understanding of essentials. The transition should mark an advance. And yet, though one may have learned a great deal, one is poorer than before. It is the same in psychology. Here too we find science intent upon a systematic collection of data, yet often excluding through that very activity precisely that which is most vivid and real in the living phenomena it studies. Somehow the thing that matters has eluded us.

Along with Kohler and Koffka, Max Wertheimer was one of the principal proponents of Gestalt theory which emphasized higher-order cognitive processes in the midst of behaviorism. The focus of Gestalt theory was the idea of "grouping", i.e., characteristics of stimuli cause us to structure or interpret a visual field or problem in a certain way (Wertheimer, 1922). The primary factors that determine grouping were:
(1) proximity - elements tend to be grouped together according to their nearness,
(2) similarity - items similar in some respect tend to be grouped together,
(3) closure - items are grouped together if they tend to complete some entity, and
(4) simplicity - items will be organized into simple figures according to symmetry, regularity, and smoothness. These factors were called the laws of organization and were explained in the context of perception and problem-solving.
 

Wertheimer was especially concerned with problem-solving. Werthiemer (1959) provides a Gestalt interpretation of problem-solving episodes of famous scientists (e.g., Galileo, Einstein) as well as children presented with mathematical problems. The essence of successful problem-solving behavior according to Wertheimer is being able to see the overall structure of the problem: "A certain region in the field becomes crucial, is focused; but it does not become isolated. A new, deeper structural view of the situation develops, involving changes in functional meaning, the grouping, etc. of the items. Directed by what is required by the structure of a situation for a crucial region, one is led to a reasonable prediction, which like the other parts of the structure, calls for verification, direct or indirect. Two directions are involved: getting a whole consistent picture, and seeing what the structure of the whole requires for the parts.

the myth of total cinema (andre bazin)

Bazin asserted in ‘Ontology of the Photographic Image’ that, at its purest and most organic, photography and cinema is realist in aesthetic. The innate motivation behind cinema, and therefore also the best style, is realism. Bazin attempts to add to this position by examining the history and emergence of the technology of cinema. Bazin asserts that cinema was not borne from the advances of technology and economy in the late 19^th century but from that innate desire to reproduce the world around us in perfect detail. Bazin explains that ‘the basic technical discoveries [are] fortunate accidents… essentially second in importance to the preconceived ideas of the inventors’.

 

What Bazin is arguing is that the inventors of photography and cinema were not just satisfied with producing technology for sale – though he does concede that some were primarily concerned with this – but were, at the heart of it, striving for the replication and reproduction of the “real” world. The production of technology was derived from that ‘innate’ drive for reproduction of the real, rather than, as G. Sadoul asserted, the desire for realism derived from the production of technology. Bazin explains ‘The cinema is an idealistic phenomenon. The concept men had of it existed so to speak fully armed in their minds’.

 

Bazin may be correct that before certain technologies are invented there seems to be some idealistic notion embedded in the mind. Bazin goes on to explain that:

Any account of the cinema that was drawn from technical invention that made it possible would be a poor one indeed. On the contrary, an approximate and complicated visualization of an idea invariably precedes the industrial discovery which alone can open the way to its practical use.

 

Bazin is arguing that a conception, an understanding of cinema, cannot, or should not, be drawn from the economic and technological development of photography. A correct understanding of cinema, according to Bazin, is to be found in the idea that preceded the industry. As I noted in the article concerning ’The Ontology of The Photographic Image’, Bazin feels that the innate idea – which preceded the actual technology of photography – was the desire to reproduce reality as it is perceived. Bazin is reaffirming why he asserts that realism is cinema.

 

Bazin reiterates this point when he states:

The guiding myth, then, inspiring the invention of cinema, is the accomplishment of that which dominated in a more or less vague fashion all the techniques of the mechanical reproduction of reality in the nineteenth century, from photography to phonograph, namely an integral realism, a recreation of the world in its own image, an image unburdened by the freedom of interpretation of the artist or the irreversibility of time.

 

The myth or guiding impulse of realism, and cinema, is, to Bazin, the reproduction of the world unburdened, uncoloured, by an artist’s interpretation or subjectivity. Realism is the attempt or aim of objectivity – enabled by mechanical reproduction of reality. The realist ideal is the unburdening of subjectivity and a release from the ravages and restrictions of time. Bazin continues ‘The real primitives of the cinema, existing only in the imaginations of a few men of the nineteenth century, are in complete imitation of nature’.

 

Bazin is again stating that cinema is founded by, established by, those “primitives” who dreamed of cinema as a complete replication of nature. Bazin also indicates a central assumption; namely that those primitives who strive for realism are, in Bazin’s position, ‘in complete imitation of nature’. Bazin believes the desire for realism is the natural, organic beginning and end point of cinema. In the last paragraph Bazin makes an interesting point, explaining ‘the myth of Icarus had to wait on the internal combustion engine before descending from the platonic heavens. But it had dwelt in the soul of everyman since he first thought about birds’.

 

Bazin believes that the myth of total cinema – realism – was held in everymans’ heart long before the technology was invented.

Bazin’s position in this short rhetorical article is interesting and fresh, however he confuses the technical development of cinema and the development of cinema as an art form. Cinema is as much a tool of fantasy and dreams than the reproduction of nature or “reality”. Forerunners of the technical side may have desired the replication of the image’s – senses – we perceive but as soon as those developments were made artistically driven minds found the technology to be a perfect tool in the aid of their imagination; their dreams and ideas are as natural as those of the realists. Bazin may be correct that an innate, essential desire of humankind is the replication and production of a cinema which perfectly imitates reality, however this is not the only drive. Nor is it sufficient evidence in establishing that realism as the ontological truth; the ultimate and correct starting and ending point in cinema’s history. Bazin has raised several interesting points yet he has failed to establish realism as the correct aesthetic of cinema. Bazin also fails to explain why an innate drive of cinema produces the best, most complete cinema. It may be that the drive for realism is a natural one, but this does not indicate why it is the most advantageous aesthetic.

Russian formalism

Russian formalism. A school of literary theory and analysis that emerged in Russia around 1915, devoting itself to the study of literariness, i.e. the sum of 'devices' that distinguish literary language from ordinary language. In reaction against the vagueness of previous literary theories, it attempted a scientific description of literature (especially poetry) as a special use of language with observable features. This meant deliberately disregarding the contents of literary works, and thus inviting strong disapproval from Marxist critics, for whom formalism was a term of reproach. With the consolidation of Stalin's dictatorship around 1929, Formalism was silenced as a heresy in the Soviet Union, and its centre of research migrated to Prague in the 1930s. Along with 'literariness', the most important concept of the school was that of defamiliarization: instead of seeing literature as a 'reflection' of the world, Victor Shklovsky and his Formalist followers saw it as a linguistic dislocation. or a 'making strange'. In the period of Czech Formalism. Jan Mukarovsky further refined this notion in terms of foregrounding. In their studies of narrative, the Formalists also clarified the distinction between plot (sjazet) and story (fabula). Apart from Shklovsky and his associate Boris Eikhenbaum, the most prominent of the Russian Formalists was Roman Jakobson, who was active both in Moscow and in Prague before introducing Formalist theories to the United States. A somewhat distinct Russian group is the 'Bakhtin school' comprising Mikhail Bakhtin, Pavlev Medvedev, and Valentin Voloshinov; these theorists combined elements of Formalism and Marxism in their accounts of verbal multi-accentuality and of the dialogic text. Rediscovered in the West in the 1960s, the work of the Russian Formalists has had an important influence on structuralist theories of literature, and on some of the more recent varieties of Marxist literary criticism.

Russian formalism was a diverse movement, producing no unified doctrine, and no consensus amongst its proponents on a central aim to their endeavours. In fact, "Russian Formalism" describes two distinct movements: the OPOJAZ (Obshchestvo Izucheniia Poeticheskogo Yazyka, Society for the Study of Poetic Language) in St. Petersburg and the Moscow Linguistic Circle. Therefore, it is more precise to refer to the "Russian Formalists", rather than to use the more encompassing and abstract term of "Formalism".

The term "formalism" was first used by the adversaries of the movement, and as such it conveys a meaning explicitly rejected by the Formalists themselves. In the words of one of the foremost Formalists, Boris Eichenbaum: "It is difficult to recall who coined this name, but it was not a very felicitous coinage. It might have been convenient as a simplified battle cry but it fails, as an objective term, to delimit the activities of the "Society for the Study of Poetic Language

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is a joining together of sensations that are normally experienced separately. Studying synaesthesia may help us to understand how the brain segregates and integrates different sensations and thoughts. The Synaesthesia research group here at Sussex look at a wide variety of topics related to the phenomenon, encompassing the neurological and behavioural aspects as well as the potential application of synaesthesia research.

Synaesthesia has been a topic of interest to Psychologists ever since psychology emerged as a discipline in its own right in the late nineteenth century. It is an intriguing phenomenon because it challenges the tacit assumption that other people's perceptual experiences of the world are the same as our own. Philosophers may lose sleep over my experience of green is the same as your experience of green, but people on the street do not. This is because we can use language as a common currency to agree upon our experiences.

Synaesthesia is a complex experience and, being rare, it is difficult to study. Nevertheless, several interesting theories have been proposed and tested. The idea that synaesthesia is a mental illness is long gone, but that doesn't mean it's not "all in the head"! Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans have shown that different areas of the brain are active for synaesthetes experiencing a cross-modal association than for non-synesthetes engaged in the same task. The synaesthetic experience depends exclusively on the left brain and is associated with a decreased blood supply to the neocortex. This results in enhanced limbic expression. Therefore, we can assume that the system responsible for synaesthesia is located or influenced by the limbic system more than the neocortex, which is not what most people would predict without the evidence from the PET scans. Additional support for this is that there is an emotional aspect associated with a synesthetic experience. In fact, in order to fulfill the diagnostic criteria for synaesthesia an emotional response must be present.

 

Defamiliarization

Defamiliarization refers to a writer's taking an everyday object that we all recognize and, with a wave of his or her authorial magic wand, rendering that same object weirdly unfamiliar to us—strange even. Presto change-o, our perspective shifts and we see the object in a new way. A pretty neat magic trick.

The word defamiliarization was coined by the early 20th-century Russian literary critic Viktor Shklovsky in his essay "Art as Technique." He argued that defamiliarization is, more or less, the point of all art. Art makes language strange, as well as the world that the language presents.

To illustrate what he means by defamiliarization, Shklovsky uses examples from Tolstoy, whom he cites as using the technique throughout his works: “The narrator of 'Kholstomer,' for example, is a horse, and it is the horse’s point of view (rather than a person’s) that makes the content of the story seem unfamiliar” (Shklovsky 16). As a Russian Formalist, many of Shklovsky’s examples use Russian authors and Russian dialects: “And currently Maxim Gorky is changing his diction from the old literary language to the new literary colloquialism of Leskov. Ordinary speech and literary language have thereby changed places (see the work of Vyacheslav Ivanov and many others)” (Shklovsky 19-20).

Defamiliarization also includes the use of foreign languages within a work. At the time that Shklovsky was writing, there was a change in the use of language in both literature and everyday spoken Russian. As Shklovsky puts it: “Russian literary language, which was originally foreign to Russia, has so permeated the language of the people that it has blended with their conversation. On the other hand, literature has now begun to show a tendency towards the use of dialects and/or barbarisms” (Shklovsky 19).

Constructivism

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.

The type of learner is self-directed, creative, and innovative. The purpose in education is to become creative and innovative through analysis, conceptualizations, and synthesis of prior experience to create new knowledge. The educator’s role is to mentor the learner during heuristic problem solving of ill-defined problems by enabling quested learning that may modify existing knowledge and allow for creation of new knowledge. The learning goal is the highest order of learning: heuristic problem solving, metacognitive knowledge, creativity, and originality

Furthermore, it is argued that the responsibility of learning should reside increasingly with the learner. Social constructivism thus emphasizes the importance of the learner being actively involved in the learning process, unlike previous educational viewpoints where the responsibility rested with the instructor to teach and where the learner played a passive, receptive role.

Natya Shastra (Rasa)

Bharat was first art critic to define rasa us. He must have had in mined Natyasastra and drama when he defined art emotion. He said that rasa is achieved as a result of the functioning of the:

1)     Vibhavas the objective condition causing an emotion,

2)     The anubhavas bodily gestures by which the emotion is expressed.

3)     Vyabhichari bhavas- secondly emotion and sensations which feed the dominant emotion.

4)    Vibhavas include person as well the circumstances that cause or excite the emotion.

What the ancients thought about the name and nature of poetry may be had from the Riks of the Vedas and the of the Upanishads. The Vedic texts declared that the poets were ‘gods’ Kavi was the term they employed. While invoking the foremost of the Gods Ganpati they addressed him as poet’s poet. A human being could become a poet only in so for as he attained to the nature a sates of a god.

The vedic kavi was also a Yogi in the sense that he was absolutely conscious of the process of creation .Apart from the normal consciousll’jagrat’ (the waking states) the Upanishads spoke of subtler states such as swapana (the dream states) susupti (deep sleep) and turiya (the transcendental states) not to mention infraconscious levels. The Upanishadic seer poet could withdraw, ingather or collect, contain and concentrate his consciousness and come out to express his vision and experious. His mental and other instrumental faculties could receive the inspiration in a state of wise passiveness and transcribe it without distortion. He could thus give us the vision and he knew the way to get back to the source and transcript.

Bharat gives us eight kinds of sentiments,

(1)   Erotic

(2)  Comic

(3) Pathetic

(4)  Furious

(5)  Heroic

(6)  Terrible

(7)   Odious

(8)   Marvelous

These Eight are sentiments named by Brahman.

Spectatorship

“the camera’s point of view on the world it films necessarily includes assumptions about the spectators of that world.” This seems to be neither the passive viewer of false consciousness Metz proposes, but neither is it quite the Brechtian viewer so many films of the late sixties wanted to create, and that we touched upon in relation to structuralism, psychoanalysis and ideology and politics: the viewer made out of the ideological and formal mechanics of the apparatus.

those who will watch the film have, in a sense, already been created by it. That’s how the camera looks at us: it imposes on our looking an identity already invented for us.” To some degree this involves distanciation, or what literary theorist Victor Shklovsky called ‘estrangement’ – where the reader or viewer would be aware of the made aspect of the art work – but often in recent cinema this has been incorporated into a high degree of manipulation on the filmmakers’ part. Many filmmakers over the last few years who have utilised distanciation devices have done so to point up the effectiveness of the immediacy devices they have been utilising.

Foregrounding

Foregrounding is a significant literary stylistic device based on the Russian Formalist's notion that the very essence of poeticality lies in the "deformation" of language. The Prague scholar Jan Mukarovsky (1891-1975) shaped the notion of foregrounding into a scholarly literary concept.

"Foregrounding" literally means "to bring to the front." The writer uses the sounds of words or the words themselves in such a way that the readers' attention is immediately captivated. The most common means employed by the writers is repetition. Our attention is immediately captivated by the repetition of the sounds of certain words or by the words themselves and we begin to analyse the reasons why the writer is repeating this particular sound or word.

There are two main types of foregrounding: parallelism (grammar) and deviation. Parallelism can be described as unexpected regularity, while deviation can be seen as unexpected irregularity.^[4] As the definition of foregrounding indicates, these are relative concepts. Something can only be unexpectedly regular or irregular within a particular context. This context can be relatively narrow, such as the immediate textual surroundings (referred to as a 'secondary norm') or wider such as an entire genre (referred to as a 'primary norm').

A great deal of stylistic foregrounding depends on an analogous process, by which some aspect of the underlying meaning is represented linguistically at more than one level: not only through the semantics of the text--the ideational and interpersonal meanings, as embodied in the content and in the writer's choice of his role--but also by direct reflection in the lexicogrammar or the phonology."

Transference

Transference occurs when a person takes the perceptions and expectations of one person and projects these onto another person. They then interact with the other person as if the other person is that transferred pattern.
In the way we tend to become the person that others assume we are, the person who has patterns transferred onto them may collaborate and play the game, especially if the transference gives them power or makes them feel good in some way.
Typically, the pattern projected onto the other person comes from a childhood relationship. This may be from an actual person, such a parent, or an idealized figure or prototype. This transfers both power and also expectation. If you treat me as a parent, I can tell you what to do, but you will also expect me to love and care for you. This can have both positive and negative outcomes.

It is common for people to transfer feelings from their parents to their partners or children (i.e., cross-generational entanglements). For instance, one could mistrust somebody who resembles an ex-spouse in manners, voice, or external appearance; or be overly compliant to someone who resembles a childhood friend.

In a therapy context, transference refers to redirection of a patient's feelings for a significant person to the therapist. Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a therapist, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, parentification, extreme dependence, or even placing the therapist in a god-like or guru status. When Freud initially encountered transference in his therapy with patients, he felt it was an obstacle to treatment success. But what he learned was that the analysis of the transference was actually the work that needed to be done: "the transference, which, whether affectionate or hostile, seemed in every case to constitute the greatest threat to the treatment, becomes its best tool". The focus in psychodynamic psychotherapy is, in large part, the therapist and patient recognizing the transference relationship and exploring the relationship's meaning. Since the transference between patient and therapist happens on an unconscious level, psychodynamic therapists who are largely concerned with a patient's unconscious material use the transference to reveal unresolved conflicts patients have with childhood figures.

Dhvani

The term dhvani (sound) is derived from the root 'dhvan' to make sound. Dhvani is an older term going back to Atharva Veda, where it was used in the sense of sound, tune, noise etc.

In the Veda and UpaniSad, there are many mythical and magical speculations regarding speech and sound. The BraahmaNa texts have also given some focus on analyzing the words into their elements in the context of meaning . The problem regarding the relation between sound and meaning is fully discussed by the ancient Indian thinkers. Thinkers like AudumbaraayaNa and VaarttaakSa  were the pioneers in this field. Even Yaaska, in his NirUkta, records the view of AudumbaraayaNa regarding the eternal character of the sound.
PaaNini's grammar does not talk anything about eternality or non-eternality of dhvani because it is not related to the philosophical problem of language.

An important feature of sound is its fixed capacity to express a particular phoneme. For instance, a particular sound, produced by its particular articulated efforts, reveals a particular phoneme .
Dhvani is a divisible entity. It is produced and grasped in a particular sequence and generally by mistake the same qualities of sound are superimposed on sphoTa .
The sound-wave emanating from its origin is compared to a light-wave starting from the original flame. Once the first flame has been produced by the fire-producing machinery, the light-wave continues to spread in all direction, even after the fire-producing machinery has stopped

To sum up, dhvani (meaning sound) is the term of an earlier origin. Though, thoughts about its nature are already met with in the works of scholars like AudumbaraayaNa and others, its role in the ordinary verbal usage, and its relation with the abstract level of sphoTa, was defined only at the time of PataNjali. Bhartrhari has thrown more light on this entire issue by expounding the ideas already met with in MahaabhaaSya and by providing an original theory about the two-fold nature of the sound as primary and secondary. He has also elucidated the relation between sphota and dhvani by explaining it from the standpoint of the speaker as well the listener. Another merit of his work is that, he has also provided viewpoints of other scholars on the same issue.
Bhartrhari's theories about the praakrta and vaikrta dhvani and the explanation of the dhvani-sphoTa relationship are very significant as they provide the solution to some of the linguistic problems.

Montage

Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. The term has been used in various contexts. It was introduced to cinema primarily by Eisenstein, and early Russian directors used it as a synonym for creative editing. In France the word "montage" simply denotes cutting. The term "montage sequence" has been used primarily by British and American studios, which refers to the common technique as outlined in this article.

The montage sequence is usually used to suggest the passage of time, rather than to create symbolic meaning as it does in Soviet montage theory.
From the 1930s to the 1950s, montage sequences often combined numerous short shots with special optical effects (fades,dissolves, split screens, double and triple exposures) dance and music. They were usually assembled by someone other than the director or the editor of the movie.
Film historian and critic Arthur Knight connects the development of the Hollywood montage to aspects of Eisenstein's editing:
The word montage came to identify . . . specifically the rapid, shock cutting that Eisenstein employed in his films. Its use survives to this day in the specially created 'montage sequences' inserted into Hollywood films to suggest, in a blur of double exposures, the rise to fame of an opera singer or, in brief model shots, the destruction of an airplane, a city or a planet.

Two common montage sequence devices of the period are a newspaper one and a railroad one. In the newspaper one, there are multiple shots of newspapers being printed (multiple layered shots of papers moving between rollers, papers coming off the end of the press, a pressman looking at a paper) and headlines zooming on to the screen telling whatever needs to be told. There are two montages like this in It Happened One Night. In a typical railroad montage, the shots include engines racing toward the camera, giant engine wheels moving across the screen, and long trains racing past the camera as destination signs zoom into the screen....

Main examples:
The two montage sequences in Holiday Inn (1942) show the two basic montage styles. The focus of the movie is an inn that presents elaborate nightclub shows only on the holidays. The film was in production when the United States entered World War II.
The first montage occurs during the Independence Day show, as Bing Crosby sings "Song of Freedom". The 50 second montage combines several single screen sequences of workers in an aircraft factory and various military units in motion (troops marching, planes flying, tanks driving) with multiple split screens, with up to six images in one shot. The penultimate shot shows a center screen head shot of General Douglas MacArthur in a large star with military images in the four corners.
The second montage occurs near the end of the film, showing the passage of time. Unlike the clarity of the "Song of Freedom" montage, this one layers multiple images in an indistinct and dream-like fashion. In the film, the character played by Fred Astaire has taken Crosby's partner, Marjorie Reynolds, to star in a motion picture based on the idea of the inn. The 60 second montage covers the time from Independence Day to Thanksgiving. It opens with a split screen showing three shots of Hollywood buildings and a zoom title, Hollywood. Then comes a zoom into a camera lens where Astaire and Reynolds are seen dancing to a medley of tunes already introduced in the film. The rest of the sequence continues to show them dancing, with multiple images of motion picture cameras, cameramen, a director, musical instruments, single musical notes, sheet music and dancers' legs circle around them. Several times six images of themselves also circle the dancers. Only the opening shot uses a clearly defined split screen and only the second shot is a single shot.

Both of these styles of montage have fallen out of favor in the last 50 years. Today's montages avoid the use of multiple images in one shot, either through splits screens as in the first example or layering multiple images as in the second. Most recent examples use a simpler sequence of individual short, rapidly paced shots combined with a specially created background song to enhance the mood or reinforce the message being conveyed.

Haiku

                                
  A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition.

In January 1973, a Haiku Society of America Definitions Committee consisting of Harold G. Henderson, William J. Higginson, and Anita Virgil completed its work. The results, approved by the Society, were the Society's official definitions of haiku, hokku, senryu, and haikai intended to provide the publishers of dictionaries and other reference works with definitions that the Society felt better reflected actual, informed usage of these terms at that time.

In March 1993, because the knowledge of Japanese haiku and related writings and their practice in English had grown substantially, HSA President Francine Porad formed a Definitions Committee consisting of Naomi Y. Brown, Lee Gurga, William J. Higginson (chair), and Paul O. Williams, with the active participation of President Porad. In addition, Anita Virgil was consulted [she declined to participate, stating that she saw no need to revise the 1973 definitions]. Renku and haibun were added to the list. The committee produced a draft that was circulated to the members by mail in December of 1993, but no further action was taken at that time, the Society and committee members being caught up in other business.

In 2003, HSA president Stanford M. Forrester reactivated the committee, consisting of Brown, Gurga, and Higginson. In November 2003, a web page accessible only to members was made available, and a notice in the printed Newsletter of the Society invited members to send for a printed copy of the draft definitions. Several members corresponded with the committee, and their information was included in committee deliberations. The committee further revised the 1993 draft, giving particular attention to separating definitions from additional information in notes and refining both. This final report concludes the work of the new definitions committee.

 All of these words originate in the Japanese language, where they refer to types of Japanese literature. These definitions, however, are intended for people reading and writing in English. Like the members of the earlier definitions committee, we hope the results of our efforts are faithful to the spirit of these words' Japanese origins and provide insight into contemporary English-language usage and practice. As in Japanese, the defined word is its own plural. (We considered adding "tanka" in 1993, but have decided to leave that in the hands of the recently founded Tanka Society of America.

In 1973 the Haiku Society of America was the only substantial non-Japanese haiku organization, and virtually all public statements about haiku in English were made in the pages of a few books and low-circulation magazines. Now many local, national, and international haiku organizations, as well as individuals, have taken up such definitional matters, often posting the results of their deliberations on the Internet or in more widely circulated magazines, providing poets with a new, globally collaborative enterprise. We have taken much of this recent international discussion into account in our own deliberations, and we salute all who struggle with us in similar efforts. Accordingly, we see the Society now in the position of joining a chorus of efforts to understand and define "haiku" and related terms for a much wider audience than existed for such efforts 30 years ago.

KABUKI: Traditional Theatrical Arts

Kabuki is one of Japan's traditional theatrical arts. Its inception goes back to the latter part of the 16th century and, with extensive and continuous evolution, it has now been perfected into a state of classical refinement. Though not as flourishing as it once was, the kabuki theater retains a wide popularity among the people, and is in fact drawing quite large audiences even now.

During the period generally referred to as the Edo Era, during which much of the development of kabuki took place, distinction between the warrior class and the commoners was more rigidly observed than at any other time in Japan's history. The art of kabuki was cultivated mainly by the merchants in those days. They had become increasingly powerful economically, but had to remain socially inferior as they belonged to the commoner class. To them kabuki was perhaps most significant as the artistic means by which to express their emotions under such conditions. Thus, the fundamental themes of kabuki plays are conflicts between humanity and the feudalistic system. It is largely due to this humanistic quality of the art that it gained such an enduring popularity among the general public of those days and remains this way today.A unique feature of the kabuki art, and perhaps the most significant and in keeping with the kabuki spirit of unusualness, is the fact that it has no actresses whatsoever. All female parts are played by male impersonators known as onnagata. The players of the kabuki drama in its primitive stage were principally women, and with the increasing popularity of kabuki, many of the actresses began to attract undue attention from male admirers. The authorities felt that this would lead to a serious demoralization of the public and in 1629 the theatrical appearance of women was officially banned.Until kabuki, the people of Japan had never seen theater of such color, glamour, excitement and general extraordinariness.

In these qualities, perhaps no theater elsewhere in the world can excel the kabuki drama.There are about 300 plays in the conventional kabuki repertoire. To these, new plays are now being added by men of letters who are not directly associated with the kabuki.kabuki plays can be classified into the following three groups
1) Plays adapted from noh and kyogen dramas
A substantial number of comic dance-plays were adapted from kyogen, such as Migawari Zazen. Dance-plays of a more serious nature, such as Kanjincho and Musume Dojoji, were adapted from regular noh plays.
2) Plays adapted from the puppet theater
In these plays a large part of' the text is derived almost verbatim from their originals. They are still performed in a unique style particular to the puppet theater. A singer and his accompanist sit at the right of the stage on a dais in full view of the audience, as in the puppet theater.

3) Plays intended for kabuki
These plays were written and produced exclusively for the kabuki theater. Among them are a considerable number of excellent dramatic works such as Kagotsurube.
Theater and Stage

Kabuki theaters in Japan today are built, without exception, in Western style, insofar as their building and staging facilities and accoutrements are concerned. They have retained, however, some of the significant features of the traditional kabuki theater, such as the hanamichi and the mawari-butai.
Every kabuki actor has a special house-identification, called yago, in addition to his regular name. For instance, Kanzaburo Nakamura, Shoroku Onoe, and Utaemon Nakamura have their house names of Nakamuraya, Otowaya, and Narikomaya, respectively. One of the traditional functions of these special names is quite unique. Enthusiastic members of the audience cheer their favorite actor upon his entrance or at certain timely moments during his performance by calling out his house name. In a kabuki performance, certain persons appear on the stages who are not actors. Especially during the early moments following the opening of the curtain, the audience will notice several strange-looking figures, clad and hooded all in black, taking their places immediately behind the actors. Known as kurogo (man in black), they handle properties on the stage while the curtain is open and serve also as prompters. They are not characters in the play and the audience is supposed to disregard them.


Kabuki in Present-Day Japan

A review of theatrical history of the world shows that an ancient dramatic art, once its form has been stabilized in a near perfect state, has been capable of surviving the test of time even when its literary elements were no longer contemporary. The truth of this statement is borne out by the present state of kabuki. It does not depict contemporary life in Japan, a country whose whole civilization has undergone a great degree of Westernization. Yet it enjoys wide popularity. A principal reason for this lies in the fact that it is now a crystallized form. Kabuki has thus retained, and seems destined to retain, a place in the nation's pride and affection.

Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein 23 January 1898 he  was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage". He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1924), Battleship Potemkin(1925) and October (1927), as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky (1938) andIvan the Terrible Eisenstein was born to a middle-class family in Riga, Latvia but his family moved frequently in his early years, as Eisenstein continued to do throughout his life.

In 1920 Eisenstein moved to Moscow, and began his career in theatre working forProletkult His productions there were entitled Gas Masks, Listen Moscow, andWiseman. Eisenstein would then work as a designer for Vsevolod Meyerhold. In 1923 Eisenstein began his career as a theorist, by writing The Montage of Attractionsfor LEF. Eisenstein's first film, Glumov's Diary (for the theatre production Wiseman), was also made in that same year with Dziga Vertov hired initially as an "instructor."

Strike (1925) was Eisenstein's first full-length feature film. The Battleship Potemkin (1925) was acclaimed critically worldwide. But it was mostly his international critical renown which enabled Eisenstein to direct October (aka Ten Days That Shook The World) as part of a grand tenth anniversary celebration of the October Revolution of 1917, and then The General Line (aka Old and New). The critics of the outside world praised them, but at home, Eisenstein's focus in these films on structural issues such as camera angles, crowd movements, and montage brought him and like-minded others, such as Vsevolod Pudovkinand Alexander Dovzhenko, under fire from the Soviet film community, forcing him to issue public articles of self-criticism and commitments to reform his cinematic visions to conform to the increasingly specific doctrines of socialist realism

Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. He and his contemporary, Lev Kuleshov, two of the earliest film theorists, argued that montage was the essence of the cinema. His articles and books — particularly Film Form and The Film Sense — explain the significance of montage in detail.

His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage":
 
 

 

Richard Arthur Wollheim

Richard Arthur Wollheim (5 May 1923 – 4 November 2003) was a British philosopher noted for original work on mind and emotions, especially as related to the visual arts, specifically, painting. Wollheim served as the president of the British Society of Aesthetics from 1992 onwards until his death in 2003.

Son of an actress and a theatre impresario, Wollheim attended Westminster School, London, and Balliol College, Oxford (1941-2, 1945-8), interrupted by active military service in World War II.[1] In 1949 he obtained a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and began teaching at University College London, where he became Grote Professor of Mind and Logic and Department Head from 1963 to 1982.

His Art and its Objects was one of the twentieth century's most influential texts on philosophical aesthetics in English. In a 1965 essay, 'Minimal Art', he seems to have coined the phrase, although its meaning eventually drifted from his. As well as for his work on the philosophy of art, Wollheim was known for his philosophical treatments of depth psychology, especially Sigmund Freud's.[2] His posthumously-published autobiography of youth, Germs: A Memoir of Childhood, with complementary essays, discloses a good deal about his family background and his life up to early manhood, providing valuable material for understanding his interests and sensibility.

It’s a well-kept secret, but we’re living in a golden age of philosophical art criticism. In recent years a handful of philosophers, equipped with a deep and well-informed love of particular works of art and insights gleaned from philosophy’s long-running debates about mind, knowledge, meaning, and agency, have turned themselves into exemplary critics, clarifying and enriching the terms on which art is understood and valued these days, even by artists. One of the most distinguished of these philosopher-critics is Richard Wollheim. In his 1984 Mellon Lectures, published in 1987 as Painting as an Art, he offered fresh, compelling, intricately crafted readings of such painters as Poussin, Ingres, Manet, and Picasso, and he used these readings to present and defend a distinctive account of the nature and sources of pictorial meaning, an account he continues to defend and refine.
 

Wollheim gave “On Pictorial Representation” as the Gareth Evans Memorial Lecture at Oxford in 1996; it then became the topic of a symposium published in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism in 1998. In 1997 van Gerwen organized an interdisciplinary conference on Wollheim’s work at the University of Utrecht. The current volume begins with the Wollheim’s Oxford lecture, pools papers from the JAAC symposium with papers from the Utrecht conference, and concludes with concise but trenchant replies by Wollheim to his critics.

Natya Shastra (Natya dharma and okdharmi)

Indian classical dance is a relatively new umbrella term for various codified art forms rooted in Natya, the sacred Hindu musical theatre styles, whose theory can be traced back to theNatya Shastra of Bharata Muni (400 BC)

Dances performed inside the sanctum of the temple according to the rituals were calledAgama Nartanam. Natya Shastra classifies this type of dance form as margi, or the soul-liberating dance, unlike the desi (purely entertaining) forms.Dances performed in royal courts to the accompaniment of classical music were calledCarnatakam. This was an intellectual art form.

A dance style is classical to the extent it incorporates the Natya Shastra techniques. Some of the styles such as Kathak use very few elements found in Natya Shastra. Other art dances yet to be conferred as classical dances, whose theories and techniques can also be traced back to the Natya Shastra.
 

 A very important feature of Indian classical dances is the use of the mudra or hand gestures by the artists as a shorthand sign language to narrate a story and to demonstrate certain concepts such as objects, weather, nature and emotion. Many classical dances include facial expressions as an integral part of the dance form.