MediAsia 2015 Conference

I recently returned from the MediAsia 2015 Conference, which took place in Kobe, Japan, and was run by the International Academic Forum (IAFOR). The theme of the conference was power and I presented a paper entitled 'Socio-political influence on the ideologies of Daniel Craig's Bond films: The power that lies within.' The paper discussed some of the potential influences on the themes and ideas in Craig's Bond films with a particular focus on Skyfall and Spectre. It was a wonderful experience to share my research interests and to learn about the work of others who had travelled from many different places including Palestine, Kuwait, USA, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, France, Turkey and India. The conference location also gave me an opportunity to see a part of the world I had never visited before and indulge in some Japanese culture.

In the discussion following my presentation some interesting questions and points were raised:

How much influence does the director (Sam Mendes) have on the ideas and themes in the film? This reminded me of a comment made at another conference, in which it was suggested that the influence was perhaps not as much as you'd think since the Bond films employ unit directors for their multiple action sequences and the films are all overseen by the key influence of the producers Broccoli and Wilson and the overall Bond brand. In this sense, the involvement of Sam Mendes was seen as having a promotional function as well: a well-known name attached to the franchise when it needed a boost following the luke-warm reception of Quantum of Solace.

Do you think that the casting of young actors in the staple character roles, Q and Miss Moneypenny, is setting up the franchise for another 20 year run? It will certainly be interesting to see if Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris remain in their roles in the way Desmond Llewelyn and Lois Maxwell did or if they will be re-cast on a similar frequency to Bond.

The publicity photos for each of Daniel Craig's Bond films show an interesting evolution in his character: from the untied bow tie and open jacket in Casino Royale, representing his inexperience, fallibility and vulnerability in that film, to the white dinner jacket and red carnation of Spectre, completing the iconic Bond look made famous by Sean Connery in Goldfinger.

Kinkaku-ji - The Golden Pavilion Temple in Kyoto

MediAsia 2015 Conference Photograph

Straying into Sci-Fi... Lecture at Clifton College

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful grounds of Clifton College to join their film society for a screening of Blade Runner and to subsequently give a lecture on the film and its horrific elements. This was part of the film society's season on science fiction and I am very grateful to the students and staff who welcomed me and gave me this opportunity to temporarily depart from Bond and explore this fascinating film. I really enjoyed discussing with the students some of the aesthetic, narrative and thematic elements of Blade Runner and linking these to the horror genre so that larger questions about the function of genre could be raised. The students brought lots of insightful comments to the discussion and I hope they found analysing Blade Runner as intriguing as I did.

Now it's time to get stuck into Bond again as I prepare for my conference presentation in November...

Latest trailer for Spectre

A bit of a delayed response here but other work and commitments prevented me from posting this earlier.

The latest trailer for Spectre is out and I couldn't be more excited about the prospect of getting my analytical teeth into this film! I am keeping a close eye on the themes that are coming through in the marketing and pre-release material for the film and I await Spectre's arrival in cinemas to see how these themes then pan out in the film itself. My findings will be presented at IAFOR's concurrent conferences on Media & Mass Communication and Film & Documentary in Kobe, Japan in November.

So far it seems that the filmmakers have decided to build on some of the successful components of Skyfall such as the revival of classic Bond tropes - the gadget-laden Aston Martin, aerial shots of the iconic London landscape, a range of exotic destinations, several Bond girls and a good talking down to by the now male M. Spectre itself is a revival of the group of villains that were central to the plots of the early Bond films. However, it is the idea of Bond linking the Spectre villains and the return of Mr. White from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace that I find most interesting - this sort of feels like a return to the ideas those films were setting up: that Bond's greatest enemy is actually a lot closer to home, with the possibility of some more Western corruption, rather than being a distinct foreign threat. This is a complete turnaround from Skyfall, which sought very much to celebrate a Great Great Britain thwarting the attempts of a psychotic foreign terrorist - an idea that sat nicely in the year of the London Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee. Now I am interested in the socio-political context that may have affected the turnaround for Spectre... and this is what I will be presenting in November.

Click on the image to watch the latest trailer for Spectre:

Bond In Motion Exhibition

I recently visited the Bond In Motion Exhibition at the London Film Museum. Being a fan of the film series, as well as studying it, it was a real treat to see all of those iconic Bond cars as well as other props and original storyboards from some of the films.

You can definitely get your Aston Martin fix here as they have the classic model featured in Goldfinger, Goldeneye and Skyfall as well as the V8 from The Living Daylights, the Vanquish from Die Another Day (thankfully not invisible this time) and some of the damaged stunt models used in the chase sequence at the beginning of Quantum of Solace. There is also, of course, the famous Lotus Esprit (submarine version) from The Spy Who Loved Me and I enjoyed the display of quirkier Bond vehicles such as the Crocodile sub from Octopussy.

I particularly liked the props and production documents that were on display: Bond and Vesper's cover story passports from Casino Royale and the original storyboard of the petrol tanker sequence from Licence To Kill were highlights for me.

If you are as enchanted by the Bond films as me then you will really enjoy this collection of iconic cars and lesser known props alike.

To find out more about tickets you can visit the Bond In Motion website below (click on the image):

There is an interesting quote featured on this website from Nick Curtis of the Evening Standard:

"The London Film Museum’s exhibition offers a chance to get up close and personal with some of the fantastic cars that have been a part of our lives and our cultural identity for 50 years." 

Curtis' acknowledgment of the huge impact the Bond series has had on our cultural identity gives me further encouragement to continue researching issues of James Bond and British national identity in the modern socio-political climate.

Visiting Lecturer Series at BGS

Things have been a bit quiet on the research front due to personal and work-related events but I had the honour this week of returning to my former secondary school, Bristol Grammar School, as a visiting lecturer, presenting my MA dissertation to 150 Sixth Formers. It was a wonderful experience being able to talk about my work and passion with the students at the institution where it all started: Year 9 was when I watched my first James Bond film and the rest, they say, is history. I was also very honoured to be provided with lunch in the Great Hall: a spectacular venue reminiscent of a location in another favourite film series of mine...

All it needs is a sorting hat...

For the lecture, I made my dissertation, For Queen and Country: James Bond and Nationalism in the Daniel Craig era, a little more presentation-friendly by focusing more on clips and images from Craig's first 3 films as well as producing a short introductory video to provide the students with some understanding of the themes of nationalism traditionally associated with the older films in the series. This is now on my Youtube channel and you can watch it by clicking on the image below: