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This essay explores aspects of the transnational and transhistorical impact of The Fall of Berlin (Padenie Berlina, Mikheil Chiaureli, 1949). Although the film is late Stalinist propaganda, and an outstanding manifestation of the Stalin personality cult, it cannot be reduced to those descriptors. It has had an ongoing impact upon viewers within different cultural contexts who do not necessarily subscribe to its politics. André Bazin’s seminal, frequently translated and reprinted essay ‘The Myth of Stalin in the Soviet Cinema’ (‘Le cinéma soviétique et le mythe de Staline’, 1950), is the most famous and frequently quoted piece of writing on Stalin personality cult films, but it is not the final word on them. It needs to be understood within the specific context of French film culture during the immediate postwar period. This essay therefore highlights the cultural specificity of ‘The Myth of Stalin in the Soviet Cinema’ by contrasting the debates within which Bazin’s essay was enmeshed with the equally culturally specific British reception of The Fall of Berlin in the early 1950s, exemplified by leading film critics and historians such as Dilys Powell, Fred Madjalany and Hugh Trevor-Roper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic discussions of the film adaptation of Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the A latter (1948) have previously been dominated by the question of fidelity to what is considered [...]

This article examines the term 'Third Cinema' as it relates to the culture, politics, and history surrounding motion picture production in Africa and the Middle East. Topics addressed include how students of Third Cinema can understand its cultural context and avoid Eurocentric criticism, and readings and screenings are suggested.

This essay offers an alternative perspective on the history of British prisoner-of-war (POW) film cycle of the 1950s and early 1960s, with a particular focus onThe Wooden Horse(Jack Lee, 1950). Following Dilys Powell, these films have often been understood as variations on the British tradition of public school stories, where schoolboys become ingenious escapers and German captors stand in for the ultimately outwitted prefects or masters. Without denying the relevance of this metaphor, this essay reconsiders, and reconfigures, the canon of British POW films. It argues for an expansion of the historical contexts within which we consider these films, especially in relation to their representations of wartime Europe, beyond the confines of camps for prisoners where the Geneva Conventions applied. The areas discussed are: representations of European resistance activity; representations of Soviet POWs; references to Nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Producer Ian Dalrymple’s letters while filming on location, and a range of previously overlooked contemporary reviews, extending well beyond Dilys Powell’s, are used to situate the main case study,The Wooden Horse, typically considered the first film in the POW cycle, within these alternative contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various reports published within the issue including one which explores the way in which John Grierson, leader of the British documentary film movement, became a television personality, another which addresses contemporary transactions between British non-fiction film, television, DVD releases and online platforms in more general terms, and another one on the debates around the current state of and future hopes for documentary that were played out in discussions and programming during the early years of the Edinburgh Film Festival.

This article explores the role of film editors within adaptation. Specifically, it looks at the contributions selected British editors made to a range of film adaptations of lowbrow, middlebrow, and highbrow stage plays during the 1930s and 1940s. The films discussed in some detail are "Loyalties" (1933), "Dirty Work" (1934), "The Face at the Window" (1939), and "Henry V" (1944). This article explores the work of two editors who sought to transform theatrical properties into films that conformed to different notions of the essentially cinematic. It also explores the work of another two editors who were less concerned with medium specificity and more focused on enhancing the qualities of the theatrical source material. It argues that more historical work needs to be done on how filmmakers have brought different understandings of the similarities and differences between cinema and theatre to bear upon their production practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the representations of masculinities and intergenerational relationships in the Tunisian films "Rih al-sadd/Man of Ashes," "Asfour stah/Halfaouine" and "çoumt al-Quçour/Silences of the Palace." The films are important because of their esteem and popularity within North African and Middle Eastern film cultures. Each won the top prize at the Carthage Film Festival and each attracted large Tunisian and North African audiences. Some of the films' precursors within Arab cinema are considered.