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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Call for papers - Film and its Multiples
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2001-10-01
2022-12-13
2001-10-01
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Cinéma & Cie
IX International Film Studies Conference Udine
2001/10/01
2036-461X
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Call for papers - Film and its Multiples
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FILM AND ITS MULTIPLES
IX International Film Studies Conference Udine, March 19-23, 2002


Call for papers




  In the early years of film, its originality peacefully coexisted with its repeatability,
that is, with the plurality of versions. Projectionists had also the responsibility of “edit-
ing” which further enhanced a regime in which individual products were subjected to
multiple modes of existence. The “work” (the view or the short fiction film) became an
abstract entity, a series of different forms of actualisation, more than a stable entity
with a definite identity, which could bear variations and corruption. In other words, at
its birth, cinema combines a fascination for novelty with one for repetition, while the
novelty itself is independent from any notion of uniqueness and authenticity (except
cases in which there was the need to cling to singularity to contrast competition and
protect legal rights).
  The following phase of institutionalisation (i.e., the phase of the rise of art film,
author cinema, the feature length film and monopoly distribution, as well as copy-
rights issues) causes films to acquire the status of “works” (works of art or of the culture
industry, where their circulation is dependent upon their authenticity). However, the
notion of seriality remains both at the level in which film is conceived and circulates,
thus problematizing the opposing tension toward uniqueness. Processes of multiplica-
tion are furthermore increased by the international circulation of films, although in
this case multiplication is focused on the need of the foreign market and purposely dif-
ferentiated.

The fast evolution of the modes of representation and of the institutional models (and
of cultural frameworks and issues of taste as well) also brings about the widespread
practice of remake and draws attention to the status of each print.

In the late ‘20s, with the advent of sound, a situation that seemed quite settled, begins
changing – and once again towards the multiplication of the modes of existence of indi-
vidual works. The multiple versions of the first years of sound film result in the insti-
tutionalisation the phenomenon in terms of ways of production and of representation,
and also of the processes of theoretical qualification of film as an “object.”

The IX International Film Studies Conference – organised by Udine University in co-
operation with other Institutions – will be devoted to the exploration of these process-
es and frameworks, specifically concerning the years from the birth of cinema to the
early ‘30s (although, as it has been frequently done by the Udine Conference, consider-
ation will be given also to later periods, up to the present time). In connection with the
research project called “Topography of Italian film genres,” a section of the Conference

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will be devoted to the analysis of these phenomena in Italian cinema. Room will be also
given to the processes that regulate the phenomena of plurality within the textual sys-
tem of television: the idea is that a theory of early or silent cinema has a lot to say also
about the present situation.

  Some proposals and conceptual areas are described below. Consistently with the tra-
dition of the Udine Conference, they are linked to historiographical perspectives as
well as theoretical and methodological ones.

  Multiples. The multiple conditions of existence of films in the early years of cinema
raise issues that go beyond the study of a particular regime (which includes, among
other things, phenomena such as plagiarising and counterfeit). They rather offer a priv-
ileged viewpoint for the definition of the “object” early cinema.
  Seriality. The plurality of the film text is also expressed by seriality. While grounded
on processes that follow specific protocols, seriality in all its forms (episodic narration,
series of films with the same actors) contributes to enlarge the boundaries of the text,
making it multiple as opposed to singular.
  Remake. This is maybe the best known pattern of multiplication of a text. The proce-
dures employed in a remake collide with categories such as originality and singularity
even when they take place within a framework of institutionalised acceptance of the
plurality of the enunciation. Because of its circulation and of the variety of strategies
employed, the remake is one of the most important phenomena within this frame-
work.
  Genre. Genre is the most fundamental criterion of regulation of modelling and recog-
nition. It can be easily considered the area in which the plurality of the text finds its
strongest regulation and institutionalisation – to the point of challenging the notions
of work of art, original, authorship, while at the same time offering a context for their
surreptitious survival.
  Auteur. The plurality of the film text questions or at least relativizes the primacy of
the author. The research project already pursued by the Udine Conference in 1996, can
be further developed within this new perspective.
  Cultural models. The processes of adaptation of a film to a different market cannot be
confined to processes of translation (linguistic translation or even adjustment of char-
acters and situations). The whole textual (and cultural) system undergoes reformula-
tion. All the issues raised by the silent era practice of editing films for the foreign mar-
ket, with few exceptions, hasn’t been fully researched yet.
  Multiple versions. Within a short period during the early sound film a new model
takes on, based on a radical mutation of the modes of production and enunciation. This
model constitutes (within an already highly institutionalised, if not “classical” phase)
the most daring attempt to dismantle the singularity of the work and the humanistic
notion of the author. Such phenomenon has been already given attention at the histo-
riographical level; however, the broader theoretical implications have yet to be
explored.
  Intertextuality and intermediality. The multiplicity of cinema also sprung from the
encounter of the film text with different expressive systems, themselves affected by
phenomena of seriality and plurality. Intertextuality as a broader line of inquiry can be
a useful point of reference.

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FILM AND ITS MULTIPLES

  Plurality induced by restoration. The new interest in the philological aspects of film
and the increasing number of restorations has brought new light on the plurality of
texts. The traditional coexistence of different copies is replaced by a situation in which
one copy strives to become the point of reference for all the others. Interestingly, this
copy is itself fraught with plurality given the provisional nature of restoration.
  No theory. Film genres and (although to a lesser extent) phenomena of seriality have
been part of film theory for long. Why hasn’t a theory of the most radical forms of plu-
rality of film yet been articulated? Why isn’t there a theory of the remake – its most
striking actualisation?



For further information, please contact

International Film Studies Conference
Dipartimento di Storia e Tutela dei Beni Culturali
Via Antonini 8, I-33100 Udine
Fax ++ 39/0432/556649
udineconference@libero.it
www.uniud.it/udineconference/

Deadine for submitting proposals
November 10, 2001




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