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Political Camera: The Ideologization of View in Romanian New Wave Cinema and Representation of Women’s Body

Year 2020, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 30 - 60, 31.05.2020
https://doi.org/10.33708/ktc.716286

Abstract

Cinema is considered as a set of practices during the processing of social issues and is considered as an important tool to handle and convey occurrences. Cinema -an area where various ideologies are reproduced can be applied as a set of discourses opposing to the mainstream narrative, as well. Romanian New Wave cinema shows an opponent attitude towards mainstream narrative in terms of the themes and techniques it uses. It is known that the conditions of fear, threat and insecurity created by the Ceausescu’s regime on the masses are frequently addressed in the Romanian New Wave cinema, and it is believed that there is a concern about reckoning with the past in films for the mentioned period. Accordingly, many people remain indifferent to the trauma caused by Ceausescu’s regime in Romanian citizens, and at this point, cinema is used effectively in the sense of making oneself heard/announcing the voice. The qualities of the period are reconstructed with formal codes such as cold colors, plan-sequence/séquence and dark field, and so the interpretation is left to the audience-traces, such as tension-transferring to the audience. Starting from the fact that Cristian Mungiu is one of the leading directors of the Romanian New Wave, his film named 4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni şi 2 Zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - 2007) is discussed in detail as a sample. The film is analyzed within the context of masculine view/gaze and gender codes. That gaze concept has a masculine character and causes women’s body to be observable is the starting point of this analysis. Furthermore, it is thought that Mungiu has a concern to challenge the masculine codes in that period in Romania. Therefore, film analysis also includes a political reading based on the concept of political camera.

References

  • Adams, C.J. (2013). Etin cinsel politikası: Feminist-vejetaryen eleştirel kuram. (Çev. G. Tezcan & M.E. Boyacıoğlu), Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Avril, P. (Yapımcı), Mungiu, C. (Senarist), Mungiu, C. (Yönetmen). (2007). 4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni şi 2 Zile [Film]. Romanya.
  • Ban, C. (2012). Sovereign Debt, Austerity, and Regime Change: The Case of Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romania. East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 26(4), 743-776. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325412465513
  • Batori, A. (2018). Space in Romanian and Hungarian cinema. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Betea, L. (2006). The Woman in the Communist Regime. Meta-Analysis about a Gender Study. Journal fort he Study of Religions and Ideologies, 5(14), 31-40.
  • Bonitzer, P. (1995). Bakış ve ses. (Çev. İ. Yaşar), Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
  • Bourdieu, P. (2015). Eril tahakküm. (Çev. B. Yılmaz), Bağlam Yayıncılık.
  • Connell, R.W. (1998). Toplumsal cinsiyet ve iktidar: Toplum, kişi ve cinsel politika. (Çev. C. Soydemir), Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Butterfield, A.K & Groza, V. (1994). The Orphaned and Institutionalized Children of Romania. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Problems, 2(4), 49-52.
  • Cavalcanti, M.B.U. (1997). Urban Reconstruction and Autocratic Regimes: Ceausescu’s Bucharest in its Historic Context. Planning Perspectives, 12(1), 71-109. https://doi.org/10.1080/026654397364780
  • Cazan, R. (2011). Constructing Spaces of Dissent in Communist Romania: Ruined Bodies and Clandestine Spaces in Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” and Gabriela Adamestanu’s “A Few Days in the Hospital”. Women Studies Quarterly, 39(3/4), 93-112.
  • Danta, D. (1993). Ceausescu’s Bucharest. Geographical Review, 83(2), 170-182.
  • David, H.P & Baban, A. (1996). Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights: Romanian Experience. Patient Education and Counseling, 28(3), 235-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/0738-3991(95)00851-9
  • De Lauretis, T. (1985). Aesthetic and Feminist Theory: Rethinking Women’s Cinema. New German Critique, 34, 154-175.
  • Deletant, D. (1995). Ceauşescu and the Securitate: Coercion and dissent in Romania, 1965-1989. Routledge.
  • Doane, M.A. (1982). Film and the Masquerade: Theorising the Female Spectator. Screen, 23(3-4), 74-88. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/23.3-4.74
  • Fischer, L. (1989). Shot/countershot: Film tradition and Women’s cinema. Princeton University Press.
  • Gloviczki, P.J. (2004). Ceausescu’s Children: The Process of Democratization and the Plight of Romania’s Orphans. Critique: A Worldwide Journal of Politics, Fall, 116-125.
  • Hollinger, K. (2012). Feminist film studies. Routledge.
  • Ieta, R. (2010). The New Romanian Cinema: A Realism of Impressions. Film Criticism, 34(2/3), 22-36.
  • Ionescu, A. (2013). Food for Thought: On Hostility in Translation: Joycean Food Terms in Communist Romania. Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy, 38(1), 11-25.
  • Irigaray, L. (2006). Ben, sen, biz. (Çev. S. Büyükdüvenci & N. Tutal), İmge Kitabevi.
  • Johnson, B.R., Horga, M. & Fajans, P. (2004). A Strategic Assessment of Abortion and Contraception in Romania. Reproductive Health Matters, 12(24), 184-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0968-8080(04)24023-X
  • Jones, K.M. (2008). 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu. Film Comment, 44(1), 69-70.
  • Keil, T.J & Andreescu, V. (1999). Fertility Policy in Ceausescu’s Romania. Journal of Family History, 24(4), 478-492. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F036319909902400405
  • Kligman, G. (1984). The Rites of Women: Oral Poetry, Ideology, and Socialization of Peasent Women in Contemporary Romania. The Journal of American Folklore, 97(384), 167-188.
  • Kligman, G. (1992). Abortion and International Abortion in Post-Ceausescu Romania. Feminist Studies, 18(2), 405-419.
  • Kligman, G. (1995). Political demography: The banning of the abortion in Ceausescu’s Romania. F. D. Ginsburg & R. Rapp (Eds.), Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction (1. basım, ss. 234-255). University of California Press.
  • Koch, G. (1985). Ex-Changing the Gaze: Re-Visioning Feminist Film Theory. New German Critique, 34, 139-153.
  • Linden, R.H. (1986). Social Patrimonialism and the Global Economy: The Case of Romania. International Organization, 40(2), 347-380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081830002717X
  • Marcus, I. (2009). Wife beating: Ideology and practice under state socialism in Hungary, Poland and Romania. Penn, S. & Massino, J. (Eds.), Gender Politics and Everyday Life in State Social Eastern and Central Europe (1. basım, ss. 115-132). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Miroiu, M. (2010). ‘Not the Right Moment!’ Women and the Politics of Endless Delay in Romania. Women’s History Review, 19(4), 575-593. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2010.502402
  • Morrison, L. (2004). Ceausescu’s Legacy: Family Struggles and Institutionalization of Children in Romania. Journal of Family History, 29(2), 168-182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363199004264899
  • Mulvey, L. (1989). Visual and other pleasures. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Müller, H. (1998). Tilki daha o zaman avcıydı. (Çev. N. Oral), Telos Yayıncılık.
  • Müller, H. (2018). Keşke bugün kendimle karşılaşmasaydım. (Çev. M. Tüzel), Siren Yayınları.
  • Nelson, C.A., Fox, N.A. & Zeanah, C.H. (2014). Romania’s abandoned children: Deprivation, brain development, and the struggle for recovery. Harvard University Press.
  • Oprea, D.A. (2016). Between the Heroine Mother and the Absent Woman: Motherhood and Womanhood in the Communist Magazine Femeia. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 23(3), 281-296. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350506815585177
  • Oprica, V. (2008). Gender Equality and Conflicting Attitudes Toward Women in Post-Communist Romania. Human Rights Review, 9, 29-40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-007-0027-1
  • Pacepa, I.M. (1987). Red horizons: Chronicles of a spy communist spy chief. Regnary Gateway.
  • Palmer-Vehta, V. & Haliliuc, A. (2011). The Performance of Silence in Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. Text and Performance Quarterly, 31(2), 111-129. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2010.531282
  • Pop, D. (2014). Romanian new wave cinema: An introduction. McFarland & Company.
  • Rady, M. (1995). Nationalism and nationality in Romania. P. Latawski (Eds.), Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe (1. basım, ss. 127-142). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Ryan, M. & Kellner, D. (2010). Politik kamera: Çağdaş Hollywood sinemasının ideolojisi ve politikası. (Çev. E. Özsayar), Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Shaviro, S. (1993). The cinematic body. University of Minnesota Press.
  • Sözen, M. (2016). Filmlerde Müzik Kullanılmamasının Anlatımsal Etkileri: Örnekler, Analizler. Selçuk İletişim, 9(3), 224-248. https://doi.org/10.18094/si.32757
  • Tismaneanu, V. (1991). Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science. The New Europe: Revolution in East-West Revolutions, 38(1), 85-99.
  • Uricaru, I. (2008). 4 Months, 3 Days and 2 Days: The Corruption of Intimacy. Film Quarterly, 61(4), 12-17. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2008.61.4.12
  • Wayne, M. (2009). Politik film: Üçüncü Sinema’nın diyalektiği. (Çev. E. Yılmaz), Yordam Kitap.
  • Wilson, E. (2008). 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: An “Abortion Movie”?. Film Quarterly, 61(4), 18-23. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2008.61.4.18

Politik Kamera: Rumen Yeni Dalga Sinemasında Bakışın İdeolojikleşmesi ve Kadın Bedeninin Temsili | Political Camera: The Ideologization of View in Romanian New Wave Cinema and Representation of Women’s Body

Year 2020, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 30 - 60, 31.05.2020
https://doi.org/10.33708/ktc.716286

Abstract

Sinema, toplumsal konuların işlenmeleri sürecinde bir pratikler bütünü şeklinde değerlendirilmekte ve meydana gelen olayların ele alınıp aktarılmasında önemli bir araç olarak kabul edilmektedir. Çeşitli ideolojilerin yeniden üretildiği bir alan olan sinema, ana akım anlatıya karşıt söylemler için de kullanılabilmektedir. Rumen Yeni Dalga sineması, ele aldığı temalar ve kullandığı teknikler bakımından ana akım anlatıya karşıt bir tutum sergilemektedir. Çavuşesku rejiminin kitleler üzerinde oluşturduğu korku, tehdit ve güvensizlik hâlinin Rumen Yeni Dalga sinemasında sıklıkla ele alındığı bilinmekte ve döneme yönelik filmlerde geçmişle hesaplaşma kaygısı taşındığı düşünülmektedir. Buna göre, Çavuşesku rejiminin Romanyalı vatandaşlarda yarattığı travmaya birçok kişi kayıtsız kalmakta ve bu noktada sinema, sesin duyurulması anlamında etkin bir biçimde kullanılmaktadır. Dönemin nitelikleri, soğuk renklerle, plan-sekanslarla, karanlık alanlar gibi biçimsel kodlarla yeniden inşa edilmekte ve böylece gerginliğin izler-kitleye aktarılması gibi yorumun da yine izler-kitleye bırakılması söz konusu olmaktadır. Bu çalışma kapsamında Cristian Mungiu’nun Rumen Yeni Dalga’sının önde gelen yönetmenlerinden biri olmasından hareketle, yönetmenin 4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni şi 2 Zile (4 Ay, 3 Hafta, 2 Gün- 2007) filmi örnek olarak ele alınmakta, ilgili film, eril bakış ve toplumsal cinsiyet kodları temel alınarak analiz edilmektedir. Bakışın eril bir nitelik taşıması ve kadın bedenini izlenebilir kılması, analizin çıkış noktasını oluşturmakta ve Mungiu’nun eril kodları tersine çevirerek dönemin Romanya’sına karşı bir meydan okuma/hesaplaşma kaygısı güttüğü düşünülmektedir. Bu nedenle film analizi, politik kamera kavramından hareketle politik bir okumayı da içermektedir.

References

  • Adams, C.J. (2013). Etin cinsel politikası: Feminist-vejetaryen eleştirel kuram. (Çev. G. Tezcan & M.E. Boyacıoğlu), Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Avril, P. (Yapımcı), Mungiu, C. (Senarist), Mungiu, C. (Yönetmen). (2007). 4 Luni, 3 Săptămâni şi 2 Zile [Film]. Romanya.
  • Ban, C. (2012). Sovereign Debt, Austerity, and Regime Change: The Case of Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romania. East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 26(4), 743-776. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325412465513
  • Batori, A. (2018). Space in Romanian and Hungarian cinema. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Betea, L. (2006). The Woman in the Communist Regime. Meta-Analysis about a Gender Study. Journal fort he Study of Religions and Ideologies, 5(14), 31-40.
  • Bonitzer, P. (1995). Bakış ve ses. (Çev. İ. Yaşar), Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
  • Bourdieu, P. (2015). Eril tahakküm. (Çev. B. Yılmaz), Bağlam Yayıncılık.
  • Connell, R.W. (1998). Toplumsal cinsiyet ve iktidar: Toplum, kişi ve cinsel politika. (Çev. C. Soydemir), Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Butterfield, A.K & Groza, V. (1994). The Orphaned and Institutionalized Children of Romania. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Problems, 2(4), 49-52.
  • Cavalcanti, M.B.U. (1997). Urban Reconstruction and Autocratic Regimes: Ceausescu’s Bucharest in its Historic Context. Planning Perspectives, 12(1), 71-109. https://doi.org/10.1080/026654397364780
  • Cazan, R. (2011). Constructing Spaces of Dissent in Communist Romania: Ruined Bodies and Clandestine Spaces in Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” and Gabriela Adamestanu’s “A Few Days in the Hospital”. Women Studies Quarterly, 39(3/4), 93-112.
  • Danta, D. (1993). Ceausescu’s Bucharest. Geographical Review, 83(2), 170-182.
  • David, H.P & Baban, A. (1996). Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights: Romanian Experience. Patient Education and Counseling, 28(3), 235-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/0738-3991(95)00851-9
  • De Lauretis, T. (1985). Aesthetic and Feminist Theory: Rethinking Women’s Cinema. New German Critique, 34, 154-175.
  • Deletant, D. (1995). Ceauşescu and the Securitate: Coercion and dissent in Romania, 1965-1989. Routledge.
  • Doane, M.A. (1982). Film and the Masquerade: Theorising the Female Spectator. Screen, 23(3-4), 74-88. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/23.3-4.74
  • Fischer, L. (1989). Shot/countershot: Film tradition and Women’s cinema. Princeton University Press.
  • Gloviczki, P.J. (2004). Ceausescu’s Children: The Process of Democratization and the Plight of Romania’s Orphans. Critique: A Worldwide Journal of Politics, Fall, 116-125.
  • Hollinger, K. (2012). Feminist film studies. Routledge.
  • Ieta, R. (2010). The New Romanian Cinema: A Realism of Impressions. Film Criticism, 34(2/3), 22-36.
  • Ionescu, A. (2013). Food for Thought: On Hostility in Translation: Joycean Food Terms in Communist Romania. Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy, 38(1), 11-25.
  • Irigaray, L. (2006). Ben, sen, biz. (Çev. S. Büyükdüvenci & N. Tutal), İmge Kitabevi.
  • Johnson, B.R., Horga, M. & Fajans, P. (2004). A Strategic Assessment of Abortion and Contraception in Romania. Reproductive Health Matters, 12(24), 184-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0968-8080(04)24023-X
  • Jones, K.M. (2008). 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu. Film Comment, 44(1), 69-70.
  • Keil, T.J & Andreescu, V. (1999). Fertility Policy in Ceausescu’s Romania. Journal of Family History, 24(4), 478-492. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F036319909902400405
  • Kligman, G. (1984). The Rites of Women: Oral Poetry, Ideology, and Socialization of Peasent Women in Contemporary Romania. The Journal of American Folklore, 97(384), 167-188.
  • Kligman, G. (1992). Abortion and International Abortion in Post-Ceausescu Romania. Feminist Studies, 18(2), 405-419.
  • Kligman, G. (1995). Political demography: The banning of the abortion in Ceausescu’s Romania. F. D. Ginsburg & R. Rapp (Eds.), Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction (1. basım, ss. 234-255). University of California Press.
  • Koch, G. (1985). Ex-Changing the Gaze: Re-Visioning Feminist Film Theory. New German Critique, 34, 139-153.
  • Linden, R.H. (1986). Social Patrimonialism and the Global Economy: The Case of Romania. International Organization, 40(2), 347-380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081830002717X
  • Marcus, I. (2009). Wife beating: Ideology and practice under state socialism in Hungary, Poland and Romania. Penn, S. & Massino, J. (Eds.), Gender Politics and Everyday Life in State Social Eastern and Central Europe (1. basım, ss. 115-132). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Miroiu, M. (2010). ‘Not the Right Moment!’ Women and the Politics of Endless Delay in Romania. Women’s History Review, 19(4), 575-593. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2010.502402
  • Morrison, L. (2004). Ceausescu’s Legacy: Family Struggles and Institutionalization of Children in Romania. Journal of Family History, 29(2), 168-182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363199004264899
  • Mulvey, L. (1989). Visual and other pleasures. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Müller, H. (1998). Tilki daha o zaman avcıydı. (Çev. N. Oral), Telos Yayıncılık.
  • Müller, H. (2018). Keşke bugün kendimle karşılaşmasaydım. (Çev. M. Tüzel), Siren Yayınları.
  • Nelson, C.A., Fox, N.A. & Zeanah, C.H. (2014). Romania’s abandoned children: Deprivation, brain development, and the struggle for recovery. Harvard University Press.
  • Oprea, D.A. (2016). Between the Heroine Mother and the Absent Woman: Motherhood and Womanhood in the Communist Magazine Femeia. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 23(3), 281-296. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350506815585177
  • Oprica, V. (2008). Gender Equality and Conflicting Attitudes Toward Women in Post-Communist Romania. Human Rights Review, 9, 29-40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-007-0027-1
  • Pacepa, I.M. (1987). Red horizons: Chronicles of a spy communist spy chief. Regnary Gateway.
  • Palmer-Vehta, V. & Haliliuc, A. (2011). The Performance of Silence in Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. Text and Performance Quarterly, 31(2), 111-129. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2010.531282
  • Pop, D. (2014). Romanian new wave cinema: An introduction. McFarland & Company.
  • Rady, M. (1995). Nationalism and nationality in Romania. P. Latawski (Eds.), Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe (1. basım, ss. 127-142). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Ryan, M. & Kellner, D. (2010). Politik kamera: Çağdaş Hollywood sinemasının ideolojisi ve politikası. (Çev. E. Özsayar), Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Shaviro, S. (1993). The cinematic body. University of Minnesota Press.
  • Sözen, M. (2016). Filmlerde Müzik Kullanılmamasının Anlatımsal Etkileri: Örnekler, Analizler. Selçuk İletişim, 9(3), 224-248. https://doi.org/10.18094/si.32757
  • Tismaneanu, V. (1991). Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science. The New Europe: Revolution in East-West Revolutions, 38(1), 85-99.
  • Uricaru, I. (2008). 4 Months, 3 Days and 2 Days: The Corruption of Intimacy. Film Quarterly, 61(4), 12-17. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2008.61.4.12
  • Wayne, M. (2009). Politik film: Üçüncü Sinema’nın diyalektiği. (Çev. E. Yılmaz), Yordam Kitap.
  • Wilson, E. (2008). 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: An “Abortion Movie”?. Film Quarterly, 61(4), 18-23. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2008.61.4.18
There are 50 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Mehmet Aytekin 0000-0002-4206-2918

Publication Date May 31, 2020
Submission Date April 8, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Volume: 3 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Aytekin, M. (2020). Politik Kamera: Rumen Yeni Dalga Sinemasında Bakışın İdeolojikleşmesi ve Kadın Bedeninin Temsili | Political Camera: The Ideologization of View in Romanian New Wave Cinema and Representation of Women’s Body. Akdeniz Kadın Çalışmaları Ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Dergisi, 3(1), 30-60. https://doi.org/10.33708/ktc.716286

Dergide yayımlanan tüm çalışmalar, kamu ve tüzel kişilerce, gerekli atıflar verilmek koşuluyla kullanıma açık olup dergide yayımlanmış çalışmaların tüm sorumluluğu yazarlarına aittir.