World Cinema: A Critical Introduction

Fantastic book! If you love cinema, or are interested in any aspect of it, I strongly recommend it! I got it a few days ago, and I can’t stop reading it! It's an excellent book both for academic scholars and for cinephiles or moviegoers interested in knowing more about the nature and the dynamics of world cinema. The two authors are clearly extremely competent and knowledgeable (I wonder if there is a single movie that they haven't watched!!), but the book is also very accessible and super clear. In fact, I'd say that its first quality is that it is not just informative and illuminating, but, despite its density, also passionate and engaging, and very pleasant to read. Such a rare quality for an academic book!!You can find a lot of very good book on Hollywood cinema, on European cinema, on Chinese cinema etc. but it was hard to find a book examining “world cinema” in its complexity and interconnectedness so systematically and in depth as this book does - that’s why I was so excited when I came across it. The authors adopt a new, groundbreaking approach to the topic. First of all, the book is not just a collection of chapters on different cinemas analyzed per se. The authors draw a map, illuminate a system in which every cinema is analyzed per se, but also in its connectedness with the other cinemas/places of the map.The other innovative element is that the authors map the universe of world cinema, not by using the traditional opposition “Hollywood vs non-Hollywood”, which ends up legitimizing the existence of a predominant center around which other cinemas revolve like in a constellation. The map they enlighten for us has 5 big centers (Hollywood, European Cinema, Asian Cinema, Indian Cinema and Bollywood, and Nollywood), and the authors show very clearly how these centers, though being uneven and constantly shifting, are deeply interconnected and mutually influential - and therefore deserve the same attention. What I really like is that even if they have a very clear vision, the authors don’t just impose it on you. They actually discuss their choices with the readers. For example, they expect that some reader could ask why Latin-American cinema is not listed among the cinematic centers, and they discuss that choice, explaining very thoroughly the criteria that determined their choices (which always sound right to me). The book examines these various cinematic centers, offering as case-studies fascinating film analysis of famous films (some of my favorite Chinese films are there!!) as well as of films that you might have never heard of before and that now you can’t wait to watch. But most of all (and this is what I found most useful) the book offers in-depth and illuminating sections on the historic, economic and political terrain in which these cinematic centers are grounded, and that’s why I think that this book could speak also to scholars of other fields. In fact, the book doesn’t focus just on these centers: minor and local cinemas, such as Argentinian, Palestinian, Slovenian etc. are addressed too, and the book examines also non-aesthetic dimensions of cinema: the new watching practices connected to the new technologies, the production process and the financial aspect of it; the politics and the role played by film festivals across the world etc. I feel that once you read this film, you can claim a Ph.D in Film Studies!!!Finally, what I really love is the underlying “militant” tone of the entire book, which constantly emphasize the global, diverse nature of world cinema and thus the need for us to “recognize plurality and seek egalitarianism in thought and practice”. Many scholars assert this vision, but then they fall short in the practice, as they end up re-affirming the standard geographical/cultural centrality of the West, when discussing world cinema as a collection of “foreign films” that we need to be exposed to. The authors of this book, on the contrary, erased any notion of “us” and “others/foreign” and adopted an approach which is very consistent with their vision of world cinema: not a map with only one center, and not even a map without a center: but a polycentric, polymorphic and polyvalent world which requires our "cultural mobility". When they talk of the “polyvalent” nature of world cinema they stress the necessity for us, in order to understand world cinema, not just to look at its map from our position (wherever this is), but to move along that map, “recognizing how a film from a different corner of the world orients us to its place in the world, and what the world looks like from its perspective”.The more I read it, the more I feel that this book educates not only in cinema, but in being a better and more aware citizen of our global contemporary world. If you love cinema, you MUST have this book!

A very comprehensive, current and stimulating read to emphasise the importance of this topic and to contextualise debates in current scholarship. An innovative and exciting range of films, filmmakers and theorists are covered. The prose is, expectedly, dense, but well referenced with plenty of great leads for further reading. But it is not exactly bed time reading, if you are looking for a lighter or more general overview of filmmakers it may be better to look elsewhere. However, the writing is well constructed and highly readable for those wishing to be up to speed with a wide range of contemporary film theories from around the globe, and to find some great and diverse examples of must-watch films along the way.

I adopted this book for a freshman introductory course on world cinema based on the excellent reviews it has received, and the claim that it is "a comprehensive yet accessible guide ... (f)or students looking to films outside of their immediate context". It is neither accessible nor appropriate for "students", if we are to understand "students" as those not already possessing advanced degrees in the social sciences or humanities. It covers many aspects of cinema that I was hoping to cover in my course, and I appreciate the authors' approach to their analysis: polycentric, polymorphic, and polyvalent. However, it is not an introduction in the sense that it is "accessible", as it claims to be, to those who do not already have an education in cultural and literary analysis. Dense, academia-babble such as "theoretical orientalism, and a troubling appropriation of otherness" and "hyphenated, disjunct subjectivities" is appropriate for academic journal articles, written by PhDs for PhDs, but not for an accessible introduction for "students". I don't doubt that this book is valuable for advanced researchers in social science or the humanities, but, for example, casually tossing a term like "orientalism" into an already dense (bordering on opaque) analysis without introducing and unpacking Said's use of the term so that laypersons or undergraduates can grasp meaning from the text excludes all but those with advanced degrees. Really regretting adopting this book as it is clearly not the "accessible" "introduction" it claims to be. I am dreading my freshmen balking at being assigned chapters in this book. It is truly surprising that both Deshpande and Mazaj are actually teaching courses on film and media at their respective universities. I wonder whether they themselves would consider their book appropriate for undergraduate students.

I have used this book as both a teacher and researcher for about a year now, and it is the best guide to World Cinema out there. The authors manage to produce a very accessible survey of world film while at the same providing rigorous scholarly insights that elude most "introductions" (in other words, it is the rare critical introduction that functions genuinely both as an introduction as well as a scholarly work of original critical thought). There is a great synthesis of different optics through which to think about the category of the global, a clear assessment of major trends in different "centers" of power (Nollywood, Asia etc.), and the authors integrate "big picture" discussions of context and politics with fine-grained analysis of aesthetic form. In addition to capturing the major scholarly debates in national and transnational contexts, it is also great synthesis information here about industry studies, exhibition platforms. I recommend this book for undergraduates, graduates, or anyone looking to navigate world cinema from a scholarly, professional, or generalist perspective.