ABSTRACT
A French word, anglicised in the early twentieth century, and used – particularly in Britain – to designate both moving films and the whole network of institutions and agents involved in film production. Cinema exists in an interesting contrast to the American term movies which is generally limited only to actual films (though it also implies the venue in which the film is to be viewed – as in ‘going to the movies’). In Britain, cinema, in a very restricted sense referring to an actual building in which films are shown, has the same meaning as the American ‘movie house’. The phrases ‘French cinema’ or ‘Spanish cinema’, however, indicate the broader British usage: they refer, that is, to a culture of film-making. This includes: actual films; the styles, techniques, and conventions of their production; the significance of particular directors and camera-operators (or ‘cinematographers’, to use the original technical and professional designation); and, beyond these elements, a range of socio^-historical characteristics believed to have influenced a particular cinematic culture. Generally such cultures of cinema are given national^ identities. However, there are some, at least partial, exceptions – for instance ‘New Wave’ or ‘Neorealist’ cinema, though these tend, too, to be qualified via national identifications, for example, French new wave, Italian neo-realism. Cinematic, in one of its current specialised senses, refers not to
actual films or filmic techniques, but rather to the appearance or look of a particular visual representation or style of visual representation. For instance, it is routinely claimed that the paintings of Edward Hopper have something of a cinematic – or filmic – quality to them, though it is in the character of such claims that the details of this look usually remain both elusive (hard to specify) and allusive (open to multiple interpretation). In Hopper’s pictures (e.g.: House by the Railroad (1925)), the perceived qualities of depicted light or sense of stillness are often referred to as in some way cinematic. These perceptions are, in general terms, reference to how time and movement appear to be represented – or not represented – in various kinds of static visual art^ forms. Cindy Sherman’s photographs, for example showing models posing in windows or on beds, have also been called cinematic (e.g.: Film Stills, No. 6 (1977)). This time, however, the suggestion is that some, again elusive and allusive, narrative moment is conveyed reminiscent of certain genres in Hollywood film – rather than that these photographs are clearly based upon particular still images from actual films.
