Jana Rankov
3rd Year, Film Studies
Jana’s paper is about the contentious cult status of Twilight (2008). Jana argues that due to the elements in Twilight that consider it to be both a good and bad movie, it is inherently a cult film. The film is often disregarded as a cult film because of its large female following and the unconventional portrayal of vampires. Therefore, Jana’s paper seeks to reverse these perceptions and focus on the merit and bizarre choices that make Twilight a cult film.
Jana was inspired to write this paper because she grew up during the time of this cultural phenomenon; “I was part of the demographic these books and movies were targeting!” In high school, whenever Jana and her friends felt stressed, they always wanted to watch Twilight because “it’s just so ridiculous, we loved it and we got to revel in teen nostalgia.” Nevertheless, now that it’s 10 years later, there’s a lot of debate surrounding Twilight‘s enjoyment, it’s feminist merits, and the treatment of Stephenie Meyer. Now that Jana is someone who studies medium, she can look back at the phenomenon that she was a part of and further analyze it from an academic lens. In the Cult Cinema class that Jana wrote this paper for, the students were presented with a list of cult films to choose from and Twilight was not on it. Accordingly, Jana sought to prove her professor wrong in not originally deeming Twilight as a cult film. Jana clarified that she is not a huge Twilight fan; “I’ve been afraid of positioning myself as a “Twihard,'” but she is willing to admit that she “enjoys it (maybe) more than the average 20 year old.” Rather, Jana wrote this paper as an exploration of something that she was a part of in many ways and to apply academics to an interesting topic that she feels is under-explored.
Jana is considering further developing this paper – especially now that she is revisiting the subject – since there are many aspects of the film that she is not discussing; “I could easily talk about it for an hour.” Jana outlined a few specific moments in the film worth further exploring such as (1) Bella’s Google search of vampires and the portrayal of the internet in 2008, (2) the fantastical Victorian imagery of vampires, (3) the explicit portrayal of sex and Bella’s sexual image in the film, (4) the complex dynamic of Edward’s persona to make him a more ‘likeable’ character and (5) the bizarre marketing decision to make the character’s wear family crests. “As I write this, I almost don’t want to give the presentation because there’s so much more to talk about.”
Jana has recently centred a love and passion for national cinemas. Being a student of many cultures, Jana has always been someone who loves history. “Some of my favourite classes have been Italian Neorealism – that’s blown my mind, – learning about the Hong Kong new wave was beautiful, and I’ve been enjoying a lot of indigenous cinema recently.” Additionally, Jana enjoys watching Bollywood, Soviet and Balkan cinema. “I realized what tied it together is that they’re all national cinemas.” Essentially, Jana enjoys watching the expression of culture progress and develop throughout history through the lens of a film studies student. Jana also mentioned a passion for learning and writing about the Cold War, “the cold war is one of my favourite periods of history.”
In term’s of her favourite Film Studies classes, Jana really enjoyed classes that changed her view of cinema. For example, Film Theory “has changed the way I look at everything.” Italian Neorealism showed a much different side of what movies can be and Early Cinema – everything from the development of cinema to sound cinema – was “mind blowing.”
Come see Jana Rankov’s symposium presentation on March 29, 2019 at 4:30pm in the Buchanan B Penthouse!
Follow