Eszter Simor, a second-year PhD student in Film Studies, will present a paper entitled "Irony, Sexism and Magic in Paolo Sorrentino's Films". Eszter's paper is published in the journal Studies in European Cinema.
The film director Paolo Sorrentino is best known by his film "The Great Beauty" which won the Oscar award for Best Foreign Langauge film, the BAFTA award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. He is also well known by the television show that he wrote and directed for Sky Atlanic, HBO and Canal+, "Young Pope".
[LLC WIP Seminars]
Wednesday, 15th of November
50, George Square, G. 05 at 17.30.
The film director Paolo Sorrentino is best known by his film "The Great Beauty" which won the Oscar award for Best Foreign Langauge film, the BAFTA award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. He is also well known by the television show that he wrote and directed for Sky Atlanic, HBO and Canal+, "Young Pope".
Bio:
Eszter Simor is a second-year PhD candidate in Film Studies at The University of Edinburgh. She completed her Master’s degrees (Film Studies, English Literature and Media) at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. Building on her prior research about the formal representation of crisis in Béla Tarr’s films, her thesis investigates how contemporary films that establish an absurd worldview to express social criticism can be read as evidence of – as well as a response to – European socio-political crises. Her article about humour and irony in Paolo Sorrentino’s films was published in the journal Studies in European Cinema.
http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/eprint/i7ACrBXbdvPjcSmSWc2H/full
Abstract:
Irony, Sexism and Magic in Paolo Sorrentino's Films
Humour and irony are indispensable elements in Sorrentino’s films. Narration is always inflected by Sorrentino’s ironic style, thus this excessive film style brings to the fore the non-transparent nature of narration. Focusing on different stylistic solutions like acting and editing, I argue that Sorrentino’s film style in The Great Beauty (2013) and Youth (2015) offers the possibility of an ironic interpretation.
While the representation of women in Sorrentino films remains largely trapped in the criticism of feminist film theory, my aim is to offer an alternative interpretation. The depiction of women as objects of male desire to the point of absurdity undermines sexist representation and is instead a humorous subversion. The films parody the “male sex deficit”, or the simplistic view of an unbalanced relationship based on sexual desire between men and women.