Synoptique. 12.

"Sensational and extravagant emotional appeal - here comes our first thematic edition on (you know you love it) melodrama," writes editor Amanda D'Aoust, introducing the new issue of Synoptique and a collection of related pieces from the archive.

Lindsay Peters offers a "comparative analysis of Crash, Babel and Syriana as contemporary political network narratives in dialogue with the properties of classical melodrama and Jeffrey Sconce's concept of the 'smart' film which grew out of the American independent filmmaking trend of the 1990s."

Flightplan, Bunny Lake is Missing (Joe Carnahan's remake is due next year) and The Forgotten: "[W]hat can we learn about the discourse surrounding issues of maternity and paternity through these films?" asks Sylvain Verstricht. "Unfortunately, even though their stories take place in a recent social context, they reiterate detrimental conceptions of parenthood that are centuries old: that family is the woman's concern; that biology ensures that mothers are more intimately connected to their children; that women give life and men destroy it; and that, as such, men are the most expendable in the family structure."

And Anne-Louise Lalancette's piece on Stella Dallas and its 1990 remake, Stella, is in French.

Posted by dwhudson at November 9, 2008 4:54 AM