The Sense of Place in Contemporary Cinema

#### 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. Contents 5 Figures 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 Part 1 Chantal Akerman: Cloistered Nomadism 23 Introduction 23 CHAPTER 1 Blow Up My Town: Everyday Rowdiness 27 CHAPTER 2 Jeanne Dielman: Neurotic Seclusion 32 CHAPTER 3 From Cities to Walls: A Local Change of Scenery 39 Part 2 The House as a Place of Declarations and Meditations 53 Introduction 53 CHAPTER 4 Avi Mograbi: The Political Workshop 55 CHAPTER 5 A Moving Inwardness: Alexander Sokurov’s A Humble Life 71 Part 3 The Forest: From Sensory Environment to Economic Site 83 Introduction 83 CHAPTER 6 Philippe Grandrieux’s Forest-matter: A Multisensory Place 85 CHAPTER 7 Naomi Kawase’s The Mourning Forest: The March of Bodies, the Spiritual Journey 93 CHAPTER 8 Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub: The ‘Sacred Sobriety’ of the Undergrowth 100 CHAPTER 9 Lisandro Alonso’s La Libertad and Los Muertos: The Dual Forest 113 Part 4 The Banlieue: Off-centred, Isolated 121 Introduction 121 CHAPTER 10 Pasolini’s Wastelands 125 CHAPTER 11 Pedro Costa’s Colossal Youth: From the Slums to the Sanitised Apartment 134 CHAPTER 12 Tariq Teguia and the Algerian Banlieue: A Field of Ruin 144 Part 5 The Strangeness of Places and the Solitude of Men 155 Introduction 155 CHAPTER 13 Bruno Dumont’s Hamlets: Cursed and Isolated Places 157 CHAPTER 14 Béla Tarr: Waiting behind Barricades 169 CHAPTER 15 Sharunas Bartas’s Undergrounds 177 Epilogue 187 Bibliography 190 Index 198 "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."-- Provided by publisher