Así es la vida

La “Medea” di Euripide – che narra la terribile vendetta nei confronti di Giasone, che l’ha ripudiata per sposare Glauce, figlia di Creonte e che la spingerà a uccidere sia i figli avuti da Giasone, sia la nuova sposa e suo padre – è ambientata interamente a Corinto, entro una perfetta unità estetica di tempo e di luogo.

[it] Medea non abita più qui by Paolo Lago
[fr] Médée n'habite plus ici

13 (Tzameti)

A pochi mesi di distanza dalla rivolta delle banlieue parigine, proviamo ad immaginare di mettere nella stessa pellicola due personaggi completamente diversi. Sébastien, il protagonista del film franco-georgiano presentato a Venezia 2005 dell’esordiente regista Géla Babluani (George Babluani) “13 Tzameti”. E Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil), il personaggio principale di “Caché (Niente da nascondere)”, del regista austriaco Michael Haneke, che ha vinto a Cannes 2005 il premio per la miglior regia. Con questa operazione potremmo scoprire che i due personaggi attraversano due luoghi speculari e conflittuali della stessa Francia contemporanea e si trovano a fronteggiare un incontro col proprio destino che ha molti elementi in comune.

[it] L’Empire du côté obscure by Ludovica Fales

2001: A Space Odyssey

Da alcuni anni si è iniziato a discutere di Roboetica, in particolare da quando la realizzazione di alcuni automi antropomorfi (o con sembianze di animali domestici) destinati al mercato consumer ha paventato un mondo popolato anche da queste nuove creature artificiali. Il cinema di fantascienza, specialmente quello di derivazione letteraria, si è comunque confrontato col problema già da diversi decenni: vediamone alcuni aspetti principali.

[it] Coscienze biomeccaniche by Paolo Marocco

28 days later

Each of the monstrous figures in the pantheon of classic American horror cinema—the vampire, the werewolf, and Frankenstein's creature—comes with a unique and distinct set of morphological and behavioral features. Take the vampire, for example, inscribed by Bela Lugosi's seminal performance into the larger text of popular culture, and thus immediately recognizable by his cape and tuxedo, the theatricality of his entrance, the courtliness of his speech, the more or less pronounced Eastern European accent, and the slight formality of his manners.

[en] On the Acceleration of the Undead by Steffen Hantke

[en] I’m so lonesome I could cry? by Jana Toppe

A History of Violence

Una storia apparentemente tranquilla, quella di Tom Stall, mite ristoratore della cittadina di Millbrook, Indiana. Uomo religioso, sposato e con due figli, Tom ha un viso sereno; tutta la sua vita sembra andare nel più normale (perfino melenso) dei modi fino a quando due malintenzionati non entrano nel suo locale minacciando di uccidere tutti, e lui si scopre eroe, riuscendo a farli fuori entrambi con una sicurezza e una precisione il cui effetto è decisamente straniante sullo spettatore, mettendolo così palesemente sull’attenti.

[it] A volte ritornano by Andrea Inzerillo

A Nightmare on Elm Street

This article examines how filmmakers utilized viewer manipulation in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series (1984—1994) as a playful mode of address, which simultaneously articulated certain socio-political anxieties prevalent in the surrounding culture. These anxieties concern notions of power and visibility as they relate to what John B. Thompson (1990, 1995) calls the “mediazation of modern culture” and the rise of “quasi-mediated interaction” with its monological or one-way flow of media messages into the private domiciles of citizens. This distinguishing characteristic of quasi-mediated interaction is mirrored through the supernatural abilities of the series’ popular villain character, Freddy Krueger, who is able to intrude into the private realms and personal lives of his victims. However, unlike other slasher villains that take the form of emotionless automatons, Freddy is a trickster; a cruel clown who takes pleasure in manipulating his victims’ perceptions of reality. Just as powerful political leaders must be concerned with their own visual presentations of self in the media age, Freddy must also appeal to his victims in the dream world as well as to the viewers on the other side of the screen. Lastly, to ensure the continuation of his cult of personality, Freddy must displace the Final Girl as the “hero” of each film and become the hero himself through strategically placed elements in the films’ mythic structure.

[en] “Welcome to Prime-Time, Bitch” by Jason Rapelje

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Samuel Bayer’s remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is an allegory about bourgeois people who live in denial, sweeping problems like class disparity, molestation, and murder under the carpet. Via a new and even more disturbing Freddy Krueger, the film explores the dark underside of the American Dream in a post-modern world.

[en] Beneath the American Dream by Roland Finger

A Serious Man

The article addresses the Coen brothers' problematic vision of Judaism in their film A Serious Man. Set in the late 1960s, this tragi-comedy based on the Minnesota setting where the Coen brothers grew up, focuses on a Jewish professor whose life falls apart in Job-like fashion. In this review, I argue that the Coen brothers toggle between two very Jewish explanations for suffering in the world, one which sees it as random and another which regards it as God's punishment for sin. In the end, by choosing the latter message with which to end the film, the Coen brothers adopt a trope that is not only a less satisfying line in modern Jewish thought, but also one that could be viewed as hostile and possibly indicative of self-loathing.

[en] Theodicy, Uncertainty, and God’s Wrath in A Serious Man by Jonathan Friedman

Afghanistan: Effetti collaterali?

Sono da poco tempo rientrato da un lungo viaggio in Afghanistan, in compagnia di Gino Strada e Carlo Garbagnati, vicepresidente di Emergency. Dalla capitale, Kabul, il viaggio mi ha portato a nord, nella profondissima valle del Panchir, in prossimità del Tajikistan e della Cina, dove si innalzano i primi contrafforti del Karakorum e dell’Himalaya.

[it] Effetti collaterali by Danilo Zolo
[de] Nebeneffekte
[en] Side Effects
[es] Efectos colaterales
[po] Efeitos colaterais

Agora

In his latest movie, Alejandro Amenábar recreates the legend of Hypatia, the first woman philosopher, who has also been considered one of the first victims in the clash of science and the intolerance of religion. Agora is not only a cinematic journey to the past, contextualised during the fall of Alexandria but, furthermore, a colourful lesson of astronomy that shows the importance of common dialogue for safeguarding pluralism in contemporary politics.

[en] Looking to the Heavens by Dolores Martín Moruno