你要理解，國家電影 （national cinema)，等同于，自體電影 （self cinema)；後國家電影 （post-national cinema)，則等同于，後自體電影 （post-self cinema)。前者，猶在認同政治 （identity politics) 裡掙扎，後者，則脫落殆盡，只剩一條爛命，有點像，用過多次的保險套。意思是說，菊次郎十六式，就是用了十六次的保險套，就是脫落自體 (的包袱）後，剩下的那條爛命。至此，你可以理解，菊次郎，有多麼噁心（用了十六次，保險套！），和輕鬆自在（像水牛，在泥潭裡翻滾）。有趣的是，這就是，我對天地完人的，最大的恭維和想像。
Post-national cinema refers to films—and ways of making, funding, circulating, and interpreting films—that cannot be adequately understood within the framework of a single nation-state. It does not mean “anti-national,” but beyond the nation as the primary organizing unit.
Here’s a clear, layered explanation.
1. What it is (in one sentence)
Post-national cinema is cinema shaped by transnational flows of capital, people, languages, memories, and ethics, where national identity is no longer the dominant frame of meaning.
2. Why the concept emerged
The idea arises because classical “national cinema” no longer explains how films are actually made or experienced:
- Films are co-produced across borders
- Directors live in exile or diaspora
- Funding comes from international festivals, NGOs, streaming platforms
- Audiences are global, not national
- Stories deal with migration, displacement, colonial aftermath, planetary crisis
The nation is still present, but no longer sovereign.
3. What post-national cinema is
not
To be precise, post-national cinema is not:
- ❌ Simply “international cinema”
- ❌ Hollywood globalization
- ❌ Films with multiple languages alone
- ❌ A denial of history or politics
Instead, it is about the erosion of the nation as the ultimate horizon of meaning.
4. Core characteristics (key traits)
(1)
Displaced or fractured identity
Characters are:
- Migrants
- Exiles
- Border-crossers
- Stateless or ethically unhomed
Identity is processual, not rooted.
(2)
Transnational production
- Mixed funding (EU funds, Asian capital, festivals)
- Directors working outside their “home” country
- Films that belong everywhere and nowhere
Authorship itself becomes post-territorial.
(3)
Ethics over patriotism
Post-national cinema often replaces:
- National pride
with - Ethical responsibility to the Other
This resonates strongly with Levinas, trauma studies, and postcolonial thought.
(4)
Time replaces territory
Instead of national space, these films emphasize:
- Memory
- Trauma
- Ruins
- Waiting
- Aftermath
History is experienced as wound, not triumph.
(5)
Festival and art-cinema ecology
These films circulate through:
- Cannes, Venice, Berlin
- Art cinemas
- Museums
- Streaming platforms
Their “nation” is often the festival circuit.
5. Canonical examples (illustrative, not exhaustive)
- Wong Kar-wai (late works) – memory without homeland
- Tsai Ming-liang – exile, bodily time, post-Taiwanese cinema
- Abbas Kiarostami (late period) – cinema beyond Iran
- Chantal Akerman – exile, Jewish memory, non-territorial identity
- Christian Petzold – ghosts of nations after the nation
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul – myth, borderlands, planetary time
These filmmakers are not “national representatives” but ethical witnesses.
6. A crucial distinction
|
National Cinema |
|
|
Identity |
Inherited |
|
Territory |
Central |
|
History |
Narrative |
|
Politics |
Sovereignty |
|
Subject |
Citizen |
|
National cinema |
|
|
Main frame |
The nation-state is the primary unit of analysis (𦭛his film represents France/Taiwan/Iran …) |
|
Identity |
Inherited, rooted, citizenship-based |
|
Territory |
Borders, homeland, landscape as anchor |
|
History |
Linear national narrative (founding, progress, tragedy, triumph) |
|
Politics |
Sovereignty, representation, national allegory |
|
Production |
National studios, national subsidies, domestic market |
|
Circulation |
Domestic release + national TV |
|
Language |
One dominant national language |
|
Subject figure |
Citizen (rights/duties), national “We” |
|
Ethics |
Loyalty/solidarity within the nation |
|
Aesthetics |
Recognizable national styles/canons |
7. A formulation I think
you
will appreciate
Given your thinking on event, wound, exile, van life, and ethics, I’d phrase it. this way:
but “How do we remain human after the nation has failed?”
Post-national cinema is cinema after belonging—
where film no longer asks “Who are we as a nation?”
but “How do we remain human after the nation has failed?”
8. If you want to go further
Possible next steps, if you like:
- Post-national cinema vs postcolonial cinema
- Post-national cinema and trauma as event
- Post-national cinema as cinema of exile and van life
- Why post-national cinema is often quiet, slow, and ethical
Just tell me which road you want to take.
