Xlala Film Analysis

Hollywood is the most popular form of cinema and filmmaking; it is the first one that comes to mind when people think of cinema today. But, the world is not limited to just the American and Hollywood perspective as other countries make their own films even compete against the familiar style. Transnational films break through both ‘national’ and ‘international’ forms and can be taken on a global and local scale. Though, it does not limit media to one country, but works across many national cultures and economies.
Films are not limited to just one country; they can be filmed across one or in many. Although, due to the original context of the film, not every country may be able to fully grasp all of the film’s content. Y Tu Mama Tambien is an example that has commentary that may fly over people’s heads. Stafford writes, “The political commentary in the film is not recognized by every audience (in fact, it is probably recognized by a small minority in
audiences outside Mexico)” (79). The boys in the film are oblivious to the commentary, just as most audiences may be, thus just passing it off as something unnecessary as it is incomprehensible to them, and yet the underlying political messages are quite important. This can be applied to other films that take place within an unfamiliar country; their land and their history are going to be alien to those who have no knowledge of it.
Genres are not limited to just one nation, there are many genres that can be considered universal, such as comedy, horror, and romance. Worldwide, they are easy to point out due to the familiar tropes used, but they can all differ between nations with their executions and outcomes. Melodramas are part of the well-known genres and appeared over time. Although it’s past terminology has changed from relating to theatre and now to focus on its transformation to film. The melodrama tends to focus more on the home life, family, community, and are aimed more towards a female viewer as they are mainly the central characters of this genre and revolve around their roles in the narrative. The cinematic techniques normally involve visuals and music due to them originating from theatre productions, it adds the over dramatic scenes and reactions. The genre is much more than just aiming to the female gaze, it is forming an opinion on societal views through a dramatic narrative.
There are many trends and cultures that have formed to not follow the Hollywood cinema formula. These types of films critique and even play with familiar tropes of the Hollywood style, but they also come to form their own style of filmmaking. There was the French New Wave, a movement that brought about new forms of art films. The films of this movement could be described as a, “rupture with classic narrative cinema intentionally distances spectators to create a reflective space for them to assume their own critical space or subjectivity in relation to the screen or film” (Stafford, 182). Auteurism is a term that had been brought up around the time of this movement and labeled filmmakers as the ‘author’ of their films. While the term can give certain directors a specific label across their films, such as Jean-Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni, it overlooks the others involved with the making of a film as they are normally made by a team rather than one single person.
Hollywood and art films are easily recognizable through their specialized techniques, but they are not the only forms of cinemas, there is a third category, which is known as Third Cinema.
“Third Cinema would be international in ideas, sharing with other producers and audiences, but also local in terms of specific issues for investigation” (Stafford, 208). In the film Xala, the issues of corruption, masculinity, and capitalism are at large, but are seen within an African country. Postcolonialism is not to be confused with post-colonialism, the difference being that one is focused of the transition of a culture or a post-colonial state. This changing of culture can be seen as one being ‘modernized’ by another, the influence of a colonizer upon a soon to be colonized place. Even if the affects aren’t immediate, like in How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, where the natives are being introduced to new weapons and new white people, they are slowly wanting what the colonizers have, whether it be trinkets or cannon
powder.
There are certain films that try to appreciate other people’s cultures, trying to tell their story for them. This can be described as orientalism, in which it limits the audience to a binary view of a colonial relationship. These films display a racist tone and tend to label the ‘other’ as exotic in the eyes of Westerners. Fatimah Rony states, “Like a classic ethnography which encapsulates a culture in one volume, an “ethnographic film” becomes a metonym for an entire culture” (7). Rather then giving an accurate representation, films easily jump onto the stereotypes and try to capture a part of the culture rather than the whole and show that. Indigenous Cinema attempts to combat such notions of film. Rather than having someone outside of the culture tell a story through film, a descendant of the indigenous people speaks for them. An example of this would be Ten Canoes, in which the narrative’s sole focus is on the indigenous community, tradition, and stories. There is no outside force, no colonialist approach to force and change their ways, it is a narrative about the people from someone of the same culture.
For certain countries, it is difficult to represent a small part of the nation when they have a generalized label such as Middle Eastern Cinema. Within this community are various countries and many spoken languages that make it impossible to represent of this ‘Middle East’ within just one form of media. Not every country is able to produce films and manage to distribute it outside of their home country. Rather, it is bound to their own unless if there had been influence or assistance from another country, and sometimes having help from someone of another country will manage to spread the news of a smaller one’s works. Yet, it is possible for a country that does not have cinema for one to be produced, Wadjda had come from Saudi Arabia and was able to be screened internationally, even if the director had cultural problems due to being a woman from that country.
The thought of cinema being shown on a screen or in a theater is the common and first thought that comes to mine, but for Nollywood it is completely different. Rather than having projectors, those of Nollywood have their films produced and distributed on video, as a VHS or DVD. This different form of production and distribution has caused the audiences to form in a different manner, as its on video, those who wish to view it can gather together to watch it as a community. Instead of a theater, they have a television and are able to share an experience rather than being contained to a silent theater.
Overall, films are being created worldwide and while there are certain similarities and influences, they are in no way exactly the same. Representation, creation, context, styles and techniques, national and international, multiple languages, and opposition to certain formulas all affect a film and its intentional tones.