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It's an interesting question because it points us to recent evolutions in film style. But I don't think that its sources are to be found in the dogma film but in television (not to forget that Lars von Triers first use of handheld camera in his THE KINGDOM was inspired by an US-Crime series whose name I don't remember). SYRIANA and TWENTYFOUR as well are using this style. It's quite entertaining when used in films, in the same way television is entertaining, although I must admit, that I got completely confused and lost in THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. Documentary style action films could be regarded as examples for what David Bordwells calls intensified continuity used in films such as Michael Bays ARMAGEDDON or Tony Scotts ENEMY OF THE STATE (you may get confused from time to time, but the films don't aim at a deconstruction of cinematic space). I thought that SYRIANA and UNITED 93 were very good when first seeing them, but now I am quite alarmed about their film style. This use of handheld cameras, which is based on the discovery that you can shoot with many cameras and combine any frame you want as long as the camera is moving, gives the films some kind of selfsufficient aesthetic gloss, which lead to artistic disaster like BABEL. The film always look kind of 'important' with the documentary style and the episodic structure showing us how tragedy and globalisation go together. But if you look closer, not only the montage of handheld camera shots comes from television, but also the episodic structure finds it sources in the 'segmentalisation' (using a concept by John Ellis) of television story telling in news, commercials and serial TV: Due to the short attentions spans of their viewers television puts together short segments which have some kind of narrative closure in theirselves. In TV-series, segments are followed by other segments, taking over new narrative threads. I was wondering whether all those ambitious epic films with episodic structure (a recent exampte is the Fatih Akin's AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE), confirming their arthouse status with every single frame (though Akin's film is much better than BABEL), have more to do with television aesthetics than they might think and know - no problem for me because I often prefer television to cinema. Herbert * * Film-Philosophy salon After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to. To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask] Or visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/film-philosophy.html For help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon. * Film-Philosophy journal: http://www.film-philosophy.com Contact: [log in to unmask] **