Review
"Importantly Mike Wayne reopens debate about Third Cinema, clarifies what it means, and insists on the importance of film theory and practice that is politically engaged with the life of the masses." -- New Political Science" Though most readers of this interesting book will find much with which to disagree, Wayne's tendency to range widely and to offer succinct and challenging summaries of traditional critical positions, and his particular commitment to an activist, revolutionary tradition in cinema that reaches from the Soviet silents to Cuban cinema of the 1990s will challenge and stimulate students of alternative cinematic practice. This book will be of interest in academic collections supporting study of radical film traditions, particularly those from Latin America, at all levels." -- CHOICE
Product Description
Third Cinema is a cinema committed to social and cultural emancipation. In this book, Mike Wayne argues that Third Cinema is absolutely central to key debates concerning contemporary film practices and cultures. As a body of films, Third Cinema expands our horizons of the medium and its possibilities. Wayne develops Third Cinema theory by exploring its dialectical relations with First Cinema (dominant,commercial) and Second Cinema (arthouse,auteur). Discussing an eclectic range of films, from Evita to Dollar Mambo, The Big Lebowski to The Journey, Amistad to Camp de Thiaroye, Political Film explores the affinities and crucial political differences between First and Third Cinema. Third Cinema’s relationship with Second Cinema is explored via the cinematic figure of the bandit (Bandit Queen, The General, Eskiya). The continuities and differences with European precursors such as Eisenstein, Vertov, Lukacs, Brecht and Walter Benjamin are also assessed. The book is a polemical call for a film criticism that is politically engaged with the life of the masses.