Stefano Baschiera

Retro, faux-vintage, and anachronisme: when cinema looks back

This article explores the definition of ‘vintage cinema’ and specifically re-evaluates the fetishism for the past and its regurgitation in the present by providing a taxonomy of the phenomenon in recent film production. Our contribution identifies three aesthetic categories: faux-vintage, retro and anachronistic; by illustrating their overlapping and discrepancies it argues that the past remains a powerful negotiator of meaning for the present and the future. Drawing on studies of memory and digital nostalgia, this article focuses on the latter category: anachronism. It furthermore unravels the persistence of and the filmic fascination for obsolete analogue objects through an analysis of Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013).

The European Parliament projecting cultural diversity across Europe: European Quality Films and the Lux Prize

Abstract The purpose of this article is to engage with the question of quality cinematic productions in European film industry by looking at the Lux Prize and its attempts to frame and promote a transnational cultural heritage and values. In fact, the Lux Prize, created in 2007 by the European Parliament, promotes the circulation of a selection of European quality films, which have distinguished themselves for their artistic merits and for addressing a series of European issues from the ‘diversity of European traditions’ to the process of European integration. As such, we argue that the prize reinforces the tension between the opposite goals of the promotion of European cultural diversity and the creation of a single market that has marked the European audio-visual policy since the early 1990s. On the one hand, the Lux Prize aims at shaping the audience perception of cultural/social themes through the use of a ‘pedagogical kit’ for the selected films, illustrating in 24 different EU languages the films’ contents and the social issues represented. On the other hand, the Lux Prize aims at enhancing the transnational circulation of European films, as the selected products are subtitled in all of the 24 languages and are theatrically released all over the Union with the financial support of the European Parliament. With this paper, we aim to look at the role of the Lux Prize as an intended tool for transnational audience building through a comparative analyses of the films awarded. Using data made available from the European Audio-visual Observatory and by the National Film Agencies, we will analyse its first decade of activity, underlying how the scope of the prize has evolved and framing it within other supranational programmes supporting the circulation of European cinema, such as the MEDIA/Creative Europe or Eurimages.

Streaming Italian horror cinema in the United Kingdom: Lovefilm Instant

This article investigates the distribution of Italian horror cinema in the age of video streaming, analysing its presence and categorization on the platform Lovefilm Instant UK, in order to investigate the importance of ‘niche’ in what is known as the long tail of online distribution and the online availability of exploitation films. I argue that looking at the streaming presence of Italian horror and comparing it to its prior distribution on home video formats (in particular VHS and DVD) we can grasp how distribution and access have shaped the understanding of the genre. In particular, I address the question of the categorization of the films made by the S-VOD services and the limits of streaming distribution, such as lack of persistency in availability and the need for enhanced curatorship. The recent development of streaming distribution platforms, which promises unlimited and instant access, presents a new challenge regarding the impact of the Internet on audio-visual circulation and the categorization of films and genres (Tussey 2011; Curtin et al. 2014). Online video-on-demand (VOD) generates only a small amount of revenue when compared with other home entertainment formats; yet its steady growth has led to a series of debates, including discussion regarding the possible disintermediation of film distribution and the consequent need of new business plans (Levin 2009; Iordanova 1. The research for

New Wave Italian Style

Abstract An investigation of the long controversy around the definition of an Italian New Wave cinema of the 1960s, this essay engages (and takes issue) with the reasons behind the critics’ reluctance to recognise its existence. After establishing a theoretical and historical framework for a transnational understanding of the phenomenon of the European and World New Waves, it offers a reasoned analysis of the multiple industrial and artistic attempts at a generational renewal of Italian cinema that were made in Italy during the 1960s. Ultimately, the essay suggests that it would not only be appropriate, but also highly productive to reconsider the vibrant and heterogeneous young Italian cinema of the 1960s under the generational and transnational New Wave label, instead of continuing to approach the decade exclusively in the light of Neorealism.