The Sense of Place in Contemporary Cinema

Abstract

Examines the purpose that place serves in films Analyzes the importance of the notion of place in contemporary cinema, using in particular theories of space that were developed in the fields of geography and anthropology (landscapes, territories, site) Employs the various theories of space in cinema that have been developed since the 1960's, most particularly from a phenomenological point of view Includes European, North and South American, Russian and Asian contemporary films What purpose does place serve in films? When it is not just a background to actions, or indistinguishable from the landscape, or a simple space to walk through, a kind of neutral territory? Such filmmakers as Chantal Akerman, Lisandro Alonso, Pedro Costa, Bruno Dumont, Béla Tarr, Avi Mograbi, Tariq Teguia, Philippe Grandrieux, Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub and Sharunas Bartas, chose not to focus solely the cinematic narration on the fate of the characters. They showed telluric spatialities, inhabited territories, existential matrices where ways of doing and of living were mobilized, where forces of emancipation and existential weaknesses were carried out. Welcoming rooms, remarkable transitions, havens for individual and communal destinies: place in cinema sometimes implies the insecurity of an unfinished project, sometimes the solidity of fortifications. The Sense of Place in Cinema demonstrates the importance of place and its aesthetic potentialities in film.