Film and Urban Space Critical Possibilities

by Pratt, Geraldine; San Juan, Rose Marie

• ISBN13: 9780748623846
• ISBN10: 0748623841
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-07-30
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

How do film and urban space work together to challenge and forge our changing ideas of modern urban life? How does film intervene with what is erased or retained from the existing urban fabric? What are the possibilities and limits of contemporary utopic visions built into urban form? How does film itself work as a utopic space? How has the space of the cinema created a vibrant public space over the course of last century, and what is its future? These are some of the questions tackled in this book. Drawing on films as diverse as Man with a Movie Camera, Bicycle Thieves, Dogville, Safe, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Chungking Express and The Circle, the book identifies and analyses the major debates about the crucial historical relationship between film and the city to consider existing and future possibilities. It is written in an accessible prose, suitable for upper-level undergraduate students in Film and Media Studies, Urban Studies, and Cultural Geography.

Author Biography

Geraldine Pratt is Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia. Rose Marie San Juan teaches and writes on early modern Italian art and culture and the relation between urban space and visual technologies. Before moving to University College London in 2005, she was at the University of British Columbia.