Please use the quotation: San Cornelio, G. (2008). Live Cities: Film and Media Approaches to European Cities, in Christensen, M., & Erdogan, N. Shifting Landscapes: Film and Media in European Context, 165-198. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Live cities: film and media approaches to European cities It is so difficult to talk about cities because cities are, actually, more images than words. Cities are so tied up with images, that language is not adequate enough. W. Wenders 1. Introduction Europe has been recognized historically as a continent formed by a mosaic of extraordinarily diverse countries whose capital cities emerge with very special identities. These identities are defined in terms of architecture, monuments and landscapes but are also related to the inhabitants and their lives and stories. Since ancient times, many images of these cities have been generated by artists: painters, photographers, and most recently filmmakers, of course, have contributed greatly to the visual illustration of this identity. The concept of the city has been in constant change throughout history due, principally, to economical and social factors, from the medieval conception to the modern city in the 19th century. Since then, and especially during the 20th century, a vast array of city images have been displayed by different media (photography, cinema, TV, video, etc.), all contributing to the visuality of the city1. In the last decades, cities have suffered substantial transformations partially caused by the process of globalization, which is facilitated by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Immigration and multiculturalism are only 1 I understand visuality, following Mitchell’s definition of visual culture, in which he considers vision as a “cultural construction, that it is learned, and not given by nature (…) related to the history of arts, technologies, media, and social practices of display and spectatorship”. Mitchell, “Showing seeing: a critique of visual culture”. Journal of Visual Culture, 1(2) 2002: 165-181. -1- some examples of the new urban landscape, as are recent architectural styles, new meeting places and new forms of cultural consumerism associated with spatial practices. Consequently, new conceptions and representations of space, such as Google Earth maps, are emerging. They not only deal with images, but also with the social aspects of space and cities. Online public services offered by city governments, maps of Internet connectivity, or outright inventions such as the online micronations, make us imagine a sort of non-territorial city, in Mitchell’s words, a city of bits2, where the physical implications of space seem to be fading. At the same time, as Mitchell states, buildings are also conditioned by media technologies. The social and cultural functions of built spaces have become inseparable from the simultaneous operation of multiple communication systems within and among them3. However, in this chapter I will not discuss these new conceptions of the space and the city. Rather, I will focus my analysis on films. The presence of the city, as a central element in European films, can be considered a recurrent subject that it has contributed to personalize the filmmaking style of some of the most important European filmmakers. Theo Angelopoulos or Wim Wenders, are good examples of a personal, and contemporary approach to European cities. –Nevertheless, this is not only a contemporary feature, Sorlin considers that especially during the 1950s the presence of cities within the movies was a deliberated choice that contributed to move the European production further away from that of Hollywood, and consequently to make it different and personal4. Furthermore, in previous times, the image of cities portrayed by the media has been used as a political tool, for ideological promotion, as is the case with Berlin during the interwar period, where both filmmakers and architects were encouraged to accomplish a monumental representation of the city5. As Lungstrum explains “The towers tried to overcome the alienation of the metropolis by rising above it and the expressionist architects tried to evoke Babel to create a new city identity”6. 2 Mitchell, City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobah, 1996. Mitchell, Placing Words: Symbols, Space and the City, 19. 4 Sorlin, European Cinemas, European societies, 112. Thomas Elsaesser agrees to consider that European cinema identity during the 1960s was defined in terms of difference in respect to “the Big Other” (Hollywood cinema). In one of his recent books, European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood, 2005, he sustains that these identity constructions are no longer valid, as European cinemas are currently displaying a cultural hybridity. 5 This was also considered a proto-fascist element. 6 Lungstrum, “Expressionist towers of Babel in film and architecture”. Philosophies of the visible 2002: 144. 3 -2- Berlin is a good example of city promotion throughout its history by using different media in different historical phases of the country. Following Ward, after the reunification of the country, the projection of Berlin’s image has been fundamental to establish, in a sense, the German identity. Understandably enough, the once heavily border city of the Cold War era now wished to embrace the opposite image of unfettered, borderless global-cityness, hankering after an electronic age equivalent of the world-city label that Berlin of the 1920s not only attained but exemplified7. However, Berlin is not an isolated instance of city promotion, there are other cases which worth mentioning. For example, in Spain, the image of Barcelona portrayed during the Olympic Games in 1992 became crucial for the city promotion all over the world, and nowadays loads of tourists visit the city every day of the year. The importance of city representation cannot be denied, whether it is politically oriented or not, no matter what media is used: in the end, this depiction will condition what observers and audiences infer about these cities. The aim of this chapter is precisely to observe the ways in which European cities have been portrayed by the media in recent years. I will try to outline the particular features that define images of “the city” in movies and television and how they are represented. I will also discuss whether there is a main audiovisual approach, which makes all cities look alike, or on the contrary, whether there are many different approaches. Definitively, I will reflect on the social conception of space. To achieve these objectives, I will focus on several fictional and documentary movies, where the presence of the city plays a major role. My study will center on six productions from 1983 to 2003: three of them were made in the eighties while the rest are quite recent. The movies examined in this article are En construcción (Work in progress, Jose Luís Guerín, 2000), Carícies (Caresses, Ventura Pons, 1996), Madrid (Basilio Martín Patino, 1987), Gente di Roma, (People from Rome, Ettore Scola, 2003), Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire, W. Wenders, 1987), Athina, epistrofi stin Akropoli (Athens, return to the Acropolis, T. Angelopoulos, 1983)8. Why these films? Recently, some European filmmakers have made stimulating descriptions of the cities, regarding to social aspects that remark the experience of living in some of the most important European capitals. This is the case of Work in Progress (regarding to Barcelona), or People from Rome (regarding to Rome). On the other hand, there are other previous approaches, which are focused on the exploration of the city as a self, as is the case of Madrid, and Athens, return to the 7 8 Ward “Berlin, the Virtual Global City”. Journal of Visual Culture. (2004) 3(2): 239-256. From this point on I will reference the films with the English title or translation. -3- Acropolis. Finally, I deemed to add two more films which incorporate the city as a scenario but not apparently as its main subject: Caresses and Wings of Desire. Thus, the principal criterion to choose these cases of study was to gather six diverse examples, which suggest different levels of engagement with the city representation. There is also a second reason to select these films related to the authors’ background: I wanted to mix renowned directors, such as Wim Wenders, with not so popular directors, for instance, Basilio Martín Patino, is a Spanish film director with a consistent production, who is not very well-known because his films are really complex and ideologically compromised so they are not exhibited in the mainstream theatres. Hence, in relation to the six case studies, my research questions are: is there a main representational approach? Are there any recurrent features and topics in these films? How social theories on spatial practices can provide a complementary vision to film studies to analyze space representation in films? I will try to answer these questions using different methodologies and theories that lead to a comparative study. In the first place I pay attention to questions of style9 to describe the films, and I also examine the interaction between human characters and urban space. Secondly, I try to extract some of the recurrent contents and topics that appear in the films, in order to define the particular features that characterize them. I also look at formal and aesthetic aspects of the films in order to find coincidences and differences between them. I do not make any difference between genres, with the intention to make conclusions not conditioned by issues of formats, authors, genres or year of production. In the third place, I study these films from the social sciences perspective focused on the practice of space and its representation, using concepts from Michel de Certeau and Henry Lefebvre10. Lastly, the final part outlines the conclusions. 2. City elements If we sum up -in a very simplistic way- the elements of a movie about a city, we can distinguish two principal factors: architecture and people. There is always a negotiation between the constructions and the inhabitants to get the attention of the film. The moments of stress and balance between them may depend on the genre of 9 I take Bordwell’s suggestions for analyzing style in films, centered on the following issues: formal system (narrative, non narrative), identifying techniques, locating patterns, and propose functions. Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 335. 10 Sally Faulkner introduces these theories in her analysis of Caresses by Ventura Pons (see bibliography). I try to apply some concepts from these authors to other films where the spatial dimension is more evident than that of Caresses. -4- the film (for instance, a documentary sponsored by the government will probably stress monuments and history), but are more directly connected to the author’s (director’s) style and intention. The films analyzed in this chapter are very special in this sense, because they are linked to the very personal filmmaking of their directors. Thus, I will proceed to explain what the movies are about, taking into account Bordwell’s explanation of style analysis in films, and also emphasizing the relationship between human characters and architecture in these films. Work in Progress has been defined as “a pleasant visual essay on the transformation of Barcelona”11 where the period of construction of a building is the temporal skeleton that sustains a movie wholly focused on people. Actually, it is a documentary where all the characters who take part in the story are real inhabitants12 of a popular neighborhood in Barcelona, “El Raval”, also called “Barrio Chino” (Chinese neighborhood)13. This neighborhood, belonging to the “old city” district and very colorful in the past, began to fall victim to the wave of “urban renewal” that swept Barcelona around the time of the 1992 Olympic Games. Nowadays, it is still being modified by urban planning. The movie portrays a working class neighborhood whose inhabitants constitute a special mixture of old people who survived from the glory days, immigrants mostly from north Africa, a young couple (he is unemployed and she is a prostitute), and a group of children that play with bricks. In addition, both construction workers and some visitors hoping to catch a last glimpse of history also become characters in this movie. We move from one sequence to the other, chasing different characters, but we never get a whole and total vision of the building. Instead, we see disordered parts of it. The visual structure of the film is articulated by static, generally wide shots, so that the characters can move inside the frame without needing to move the camera. The intention of this movie, therefore, is to get a piece of the inhabitant’s lives in a realistic way, without following a logical organization -a priori. Caresses is a fictional film that proceeds to a meditation on violence and alienation of the inhabitants of a modern metropolis (Barcelona, as well). Caresses -originally a theatre play by Sergi Bellbel-, is focused on affective and familiar stories. The outline is designed in such a way that one character leads to the next, who are strongly related by personal and spatial parameters. Their personal stories are indicated by independent narrative sequences, like short stories, and the transitions between one story and the next are symbolized by more abstract 11 Film Society of Lincoln Center. Another Spanish Cinema: Film in Catalunya, 1906 – 2006. (2006) http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/programs/catalunya06.htm (accessed 24-05-06) 12 It is remarkable, nevertheless, that the actors follow a basic plot created by the director. 13 It was given this name because it is very near the docks from which ships would embark for the Far East. -5- sequences -with a similar structure- that show a clock (because the movie is supposed to take place during one night) and images taken by a moving camera on a vehicle traveling around the city along its main streets and avenues. The director Ventura Pons explores, in this film, archetypal human relations through the interaction of nameless characters in a nameless city, which is somewhat a constant in some recent Catalan fiction films: many directors hide the “anatomy” of Barcelona, which, eventually, is converted into a sort of “generic” city. We cannot recognize its identity signs, such as buildings14 and except for the use of the Catalan language, local marks, such as titles, are avoided. Athens, return to the Acropolis is part of a series of TV documentary films based on European capitals made in the 1980s, and sponsored by the governments and its respective state televisions. This film, directed by Theo Angelopoulos, introduces the classical Greek buildings and monuments as absolute protagonists, while the human characters are merely rhetorical and visual conductors. The narrator’s voice describes the city through personal experiences and traditional stories related to different locations in the city of Athens. In a formal sense, Athens, return to the Acropolis is very consistent with the filmmaking style of Angelopoulos, slow and thoughtful. The film is shot with long sequence-frames, which change when we move from one place to the next during a whole day and night. The shooting and editing are quite realistic, but on three occasions, three characters that perform a sort of tableaux vivant, appear nude in the movie, disguised with feather wings. The appearance of these characters produces a shock to the viewer, as they break with the visual continuum. Madrid, a film by Basilio Martín Patino, emerges as a fictional movie that contains some documentary elements in its plot. The film starts when a German TV director, Hans, is sent to Madrid with a camera assistant to make a documentary on the city, especially interested in the signs that the Spanish civil war has left on the people and architecture of the city after 50 years15. Hans, who plays the main role in the film, is introduced in the movie as an intellectual researcher, a sort of detective looking for clues in the city. He contracts a woman editor, Lucía, to help him to arrange the documentary and to explore the city with him. However, as the film goes by, they fall in love, and the romance between 14 At no point do we see its most famous monuments such as the Colon statue or the Sagrada Família. Other films with the same distinctive attitude are: Darkness and The Nameless by Jaume Balagueró. 15 The Spanish Civil War took place between 1936 and 1939. The film Madrid is shot in 1987 and supposedly represent that time (50 years after the war). In the fictional plot of this film, a German TV company (no name is given) ordered to Hans to observe and capture the most important features (related to the war) that he could recognise in the inhabitants of the Spanish capital. -6- them becomes fundamental in the plot of Madrid. In the end, the documentary about the civil war is unfinished, but the film achieves a personal and critical reflection on the construction of the visuality of the city: as Hans, who is a foreigner, explores the city through his camera, he builds the city as well. He wishes to acquire a personal and effective way to explain Madrid’s history; as a result, he becomes obsessed with the idea of representation in film. In this sense, the movie is extremely self-referential. Wings of Desire, directed by W. Wenders, is the story of two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who explore the city of Berlin, trying to help the inhabitants of this metropolis. The main conflict takes place when one of the angels decides to become human because he falls absolutely in love with a girl trapeze, accordingly, from the first half of the movie on, the narration is really engaged with this love story and the adaptation of this angel to the human life. He is helped by another exangel who is in the city to play a part in a film about Hitler. Regarding to this film Wim Wenders explained that he utilized fiction as a mere pretext to explore the reality of the city16 and recreate a view from above Berlin. The portrait of the city is attained from different angles, while we (as spectators) follow the angels: the panoramic shots are used for describing spaces, while close ups predominate in the love scenes. The description of the city seems to be total, because the angels explore different points and corners of the city, implicitly emphasizing the presence of the wall. In People from Rome, Ettore Escola shows different social aspects of people who live in Rome, treating topics from immigration and adaptation to social life, to illness and isolation suffered by elderly people. These topics are exemplified in 15 narrative sequences which are only connected by a public bus that drives the spectator from one sequence to the next. The film starts with a situation that points to the problem of unemployement in Italy. The first shots are panoramic, invoking a sense that the camera explores the space in a circular movement. The first sequence takes place in a public bus, and reflects on the question of immigration in a mocking way. From this point on, the film proceeds to a tour around the city where we can experience all the narrative sequences, which are like short stories. As Escola says, People from Rome is the most impressionist of his films: in a narrative sense it does not end, and it is presented as a group of pictures of people 16 Wenders, “The city. A conversation between Wim Wenders and Hans Kolhoff” (La ciutat: conversa entre Wim Wenders i Hans Kollhoff). Quaderns d´arquitectura i urbanisme. Nº177 1987:70). These words are taken from an interview for an architecture journal, where Wenders and Hollkoff (an architect) have a very interesting dialogue about the city and its depiction. -7- jointed together in a way that each picture contributes a supplementary meaning to the whole film17. As we can see, the six movies are very special examples, because their genres are impure and none of them turn out to be what they are (by definition) expected to be: the documentaries are full of fictional elements (in the plot, or in the performance) and the fictional films invoke the documentary genre quite often. On the other hand, the negotiation between architecture and the human factor will become crucial for the portrayal of space, as we will see later. 3. City aesthetics Having discussed the general characteristics of the films in question, I will now delve into the representation of aesthetic elements in a comparative manner. In the first place, I will identify the main topics that appear in all (or almost all) of these six films, and then I will try to compare the different manners of representation of these topics. The first recurrent point to take into consideration is the city’s history, a subject that is principally treated in documentary films. The evolution of the city in the course of urban planning and principal events, captured in black and white amateur films, has an important presence in films such as Madrid, or Work in progress. Both start with footage that shows scenes of the Spanish civil war in Madrid, or the Barrio Chino (Barcelona) in its more dizzy days18, respectively. The reason why these movies include black and white images may be to compare and contrast the same places throughout time and it becomes quite significant as we can find “time tracks” in the buildings and places in order not to forget history. There are also shots of old times (the war period) in Wings of desire, which overlap with the present places. Curiously, since the first half of the film is shot in black and white19, in contrast, these old images are occasionally displayed in colour. Signs of History also come into view –in another way- in an excavation scene of Work in progress where some buried skeletons from a Roman cemetery are found under the building. In Athens, return to the Acropolis the passage of time is present in all the monuments –and stories- portrayed. In this case, the reflection 17 Comments by the director in the DVD tracks. The “barrio chino” was full of cabarets and bars, which offered very impressive shows. This neighbourhood was frequented by artists, intellectuals and sexually open-minded clients. Taking into account that in the 1950’s and 1960’s Spain had a dictatorial government, catholic and very conservative this neighbourhood provided a very provocative way of life. 19 The colour factor is justified, in my point of view, due to lack of joy on the part of the angels. When one of the angels becomes human, he is able to see in colour. 18 -8- about the past, history and identity is a central topic in Angelopoulos’ production: the aesthetic of this documentary is quite nostalgic, in that he recalls the whole history of Athens, longing for ancient and glorious times. In Wings of desire, curiously a film shot before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an old Jewish man is obsessed with going to the Postdammer Platz (now an abandoned place) every day, where he remembers the time he spent there during the II World War. One of the angels comes and stands next to him, while the old man does not understand what has happened to that place. All cities have places like that, sometimes hidden in the suburbs, but very often they appear isolated in city centers. As Sorlin points out, during the 1950s, European cinemas presented a sort of confrontation between the centre and the suburbs: while the centre was a place of happiness occupied by the bourgeoisie, the suburbs were occupied by lower working class people20. In more recent films this structure is not applicable21 anymore: at present the outlying neighborhoods in the cities are occupied by middle classes whereas the old city centers are being inhabited by new lower classes (immigrants mostly). The outlying neighborhoods become a joyful scenario on the surface, and at the same time they are perfect to forget traumatic experiences and start a new life22. In European cities, looking back to the past in many cases may bring to light memories of War. Unfortunately, in almost every single European capital, we can find numerous signs of a particular war: this is obvious in Madrid, because it is the leit motiv of the film, but it is also present in Athens, Berlin, and Rome, via the movies related to them. The war is made visible in the architecture or urban elements, but is present via the representation of the inhabitants as well, the stories they tell, and their everyday lives. The war produces deep effects in buildings, that sometimes cannot be completely repaired and consequently appear as broken pieces. Broken elements have an important presence in Athens, return to the Acropolis where many monuments are not only destroyed, but also reveal war damage, such as bullet holes in walls and columns. Imperfect elements can be found in Work in progress, in which almost every shot shows an image of a building in construction and as well as its broken pieces falling during demolition.. 20 Sorlin, European Cinemas, European societies,114. Films represent the structure of cities and life styles defined by the post-capitalist era. To get more information, Anthony Giddens Modernity and Self-Identity (1991) and Richard Sennet, Personal Identity and City Life (1992) –amongst others- reflect on the concept of city from an economic and sociological perspective. 22 This starting point appears in two recent Spanish movies: El habitante incierto (Guillem Morales, 2005), and Ausentes (Daniel Calparsoro, 2005). An apparently “normal” person or family moves to a residential neighbourhood and strange incidents start to happen to them. In this context, the neighbours become suspicious for having strange behaviours. This theme is also frequent in American TV series, such as “Desperate Wives”. 21 -9- Of course, the “brokenness” also appears in Madrid and Berlin, but not in Caresses23. As Wenders says “The broken buries itself deeper into memory than the whole. The broken has a kind of brittle surface which one’s memory can grab hold of”24. This consideration can be understood as an aesthetic statement, which expresses preference for the broken and fragmentary way of city representation. This “aesthetic of the broken” also emerges in the films in question. Although it is not very evident at first sight in the six films mentioned the topics that emerge in these films entail a sensation of nostalgia, even melancholia, which bridges the past to the present of the cities in different ways. 4. Models and points of view Representation and conception of space in cinema has been one of the central topics of film theory and analysis. Taking into account the conventions in space representation from art history (painting and photography), cinema adopted the constructivist model (pictorial perception of perspective) as the basis for studying filmic space. In this way, Albertinian perspective can be subverted using special lenses, effects, or even by introducing scenery (as German expressionist cinema did) to develop the stories. In the same way, space (perceived in the Renaissance perspective) can be turned into an abstract perception by fast movements of the camera, which at the same time alter the time conception. Bordwell in Narration in the Fiction Film defines the different spatial notions that take part in a film production. He takes into account the following aspects: the movement of the figures (objects and characters), the monocular movement of the parallax25 the space of the montage (edition) -which is the cognitive map of space in a film-, and finally the sonic space26 which can contribute to moving a space further away or bringing it nearer, as well as establishing different levels of depth in it. Aumont’s considerations on space in films27 are quite similar to those of Bordwell. Thus, taking into account these concepts on space from film theory, I would like to further discuss the portrayals of the city in the films mentioned. In doing so, 23 The “brokenness” and violence is present in this film implicitly in the relationship between the characters. 24 Wenders, “The city. A conversation between Wim Wenders and Hans Kolhoff” (La ciutat: conversa entre Wim Wenders i Hans Kollhoff). Quaderns d´arquitectura i urbanisme. nº177 1987: 74) 25 Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film,114. 26 Ibid, 118. 27 Aumont, The Image, 46. - 10 - I will try to match these concepts with a number of ideas about the social conception and practice of space. The social theories in space conception, pay attention to the space conventions provided by institutions (the power of States and Governments)28, and tell them apart from spatial practices by the ordinary users (the citizens). Michel de Certeau, in his analysis of spatial practices in the city in The practice of everyday life, elaborates a theoretical model where he distinguishes two figures: voyeurs and walkers. Borrowing from Baudelaire’s notions of Voyeur and Flaneur, Certeau describes the city experienced by either voyeurs or walkers29. Therefore, Certeau specifies the voyeur point of view of gazing at the city from above, transformed into a solar eye and looking down like God. That is the way Walking in the City begins: the author is standing at the top of the World Trade Center gazing over Manhattan. From this vantage point, the city is offered up to the voyeur as a whole, graspable image, in contrast with the messy city that one moves through down below. The walker, thus, is the anonymous person walking and experiencing the city. In the author’s words, walkers are practitioners that make use of spaces that cannot be seen30. Cinematic art, which is both visual and mobile, is able to adopt the position of both voyeur and walker, where the voyeur point of view implies a relationship to space governed by distance and power, and the flaneur (Certeau’s walker) point of view indicates the potential of film to portray space as tactile and proximate31. In Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire, Berlin is shot from the perspective of angels, gazing down on the position of the voyeur generally. At the same time, the plot is engaged with the characters and the love story between them, which represents the walker perspective. This distinction is also of key importance in Caresses, and it is present in Madrid, as well. These three productions have in common that they start with an overview look on the space (the city) but in the end there is a love story which gets the attention of the film. This way, the space of the city permeates the relationship between the characters so that the city becomes experienced. 28 Michel Foucault (Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 1995), Michel de Certeau (The practice of everyday life, 1984), Henri Lefebvre (The production of Space, 2004) or Marc Augé (Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, 1995) are just some references. 29 Baudelaire’s voyeur is a sort of distant observer who is not concerned with the life of the city; while flaneur is a person who walks among the people in the street and has contact with them (he is quite interested in prostitutes and beggars, whom he considers to be very important in the portrait of the modern city). In fact, both figures (voyeur and flaneur) are essential in the description of his notion of modernity. Some decades later Walter Benjamin also talks about the flaneur. 30 Certeau, The Practice of everyday life, 93. 31 Faulkner, “Catalan city cinema: violence and nostalgia in Ventura Pons’s Carícies”; New Cinemas Journal of Contemporary Film 1(3) 2002: 142. - 11 - However, it is not always the case that both points of view are present in these films. For instance, in Athens, return to the Acropolis the voyeur perspective predominates, which is consistent with the intention of the film--that is, to show the city in its entirety, identified with its own history. In contrast to this vision, Certeau proposes that urban life can offer a vision that urban plans and the unitary vision of the city do not allow. In his own words: “urban life increasingly permits the re-emergence of the element that the urbanistic project excluded”32. The film that best adapts to this statement is Work in progress, a film that reflects on the lives of a particular group of people who is precisely about to lose their home, due to an urbanistic project. This project comprises the demolition of the building where they live, and the construction of a new building of apartments to sell, that they can not afford. The experiences collected in this film reflect the walker perspective perfectly. Henri Lefebvre in The production of space proposes the concepts of absolute and abstract as a duality that may be used to explore social space: absolute spaces privilege space as lived, as opposed to abstract space, in which space is conceived rather than lived. In other words, absolute space is a representational space, rather than a representation of space. Following Lefebvre, representational space is more related to nature and fertility, and the representations of space (abstract space) are rational approaches to space like maps, plans of transportation or communication systems. Absolute space (pastoral, agricultural, or space in origin) shows the relation between urban space and its surroundings –nature-, which constitutes a texture that encloses both. Absolute space has dimensions, but not the dimensions of abstract or Euclidean space33. For instance, as Lefebvre defines, Greek temples are absolute spaces because they imply notions of divinity, the same occurs with tombs and funerary monuments, that also belong to absolute space. Absolute space assumes meanings addressed not to the intellect, but to the body: threats, sanctions, emotions… In absolute space, Man populates nature retaining a bond with his environment that is severed in the abstract realm, because it is governed by the logic of capitalism. On the other hand, abstract space is political, instituted by the state. At first impression it appears homogeneous, eliminating differences, but upon deeper examination, it becomes illusory because it is represented through empirical descriptions34. In Lefebvre’s exposition, the shift between absolute and abstract spaces corresponds to the transition between the pre-modern (the countryside or the ancient city) and the modern (the urban metropolis). Perhaps this distinction is 32 Certeau, The Practice of everyday life, 95. Lefebvre, The production of space, 235-236. 34 Ibid, 285. 33 - 12 - somehow extreme as these realms are not necessarily discrete and may coexist, but these dualities lend themselves to separate visual approaches to space representation the following way: on the one hand abstract approach raise a rational, holistic and structured conception of the city, and on the other hand, absolute, raises an emotional, personal relation with the city: the city as adapted to the characters’ subjectivity. If we return to the films, we notice that Caresses appears to trace a shift from ‘abstract’ to ‘absolute’ space, which is very evident in the film’s visual configuration. This film has a circular structure, similar to a merry-go-round, in which abstract space is represented by the linking sequences. In these sequences we can see fast-forward shots from above showing urban elements at night: streets, cars and neon lights. These fast-forward shots correspond to Lefebvre’s ‘abstraction in action’, when he describes the driver of a car as an abstract subject, for whom space is only experienced through the eyes and thus appears solely in its reduced forms (reduction from volume to surface35). In this case, the subject movement and the camera movement provide the abstract vision of space in a formal sense. Moreover, as I said at the beginning of this chapter, even in the other sequences local landmarks are avoided which contribute to the perception of abstract space. There is nobody present in the fast-forward sequences, which compensates for the overuse of body in the narrative scenes (especially in the final sequences, which are very dramatic). As the structure of the film is circular, we find a linking point between the first character and the last, and the “tempo” of the linking sequence between them is slower than the rest, implicitly emphasizing the subjective perception of space and time. Sally Faulkner suggests that Caresses recalls Wenders’ Wings of Desire, because in both there is a transition from abstract to absolute space, and in both films this is triggered by romantic, heterosexual love. In my opinion, however, in Wings of Desire the transition is not produced in exactly in the same way. The general vision of the angels can be considered abstract at first sight, but seen in depth this gaze becomes very emotional and implied as the film progresses. For instance, the sequences with the old man located in Postdammer Platz, represent absolute space in a sense that this place have emotional meanings for the Jewish man. Hence, personally, I consider that absolute space governs in Wings of Desire. The concepts of abstract and absolute space by Lefebvre seem to be present in the other four films in different levels and combinations. People from Rome has a narrative structure quite similar to that of Caresses, although the content is very different. This film is divided in fifteen different sequences whose only connector is a public bus that drives the spectator from one sequence to the next. Like 35 Lefebvre, The production of space, 313. - 13 - Caresses, these linking sequences illustrate (from inside the bus), a fragmented and abstract vision of the city, always accompanied by a jazz melody, while the narrative sequences36 represent the absolute and lived space. We can also perceive a move from abstract to absolute space in Madrid, although the operation that Patino proposes is more complex than that of the rest of the films. The vision of Madrid that Hans (the character) is seeking is not visible at a glance; it is to be found by following hints and traces. This image can be considered both an outer and a subjective vision: as he is a stranger he has not prejudices and influences, so it can be considered an external vision, but at the same time he is seeking for a personal point of view, which implies in a great manner personal living experiences of a group of elderly inhabitants of the city. In the film, the documentary on the Spanish civil war in Madrid is not completed, because the German TV company does not accept Hans personal vision, which can be considered an absolute space approach. The importance given to the love story in the film also reinforce the absolute vision on the urban scenario, displacing what could be considered as an initial abstract approach (a commissioned job). A film commissioned by a government, or a TV company associated to a government, would be, taking into consideration Lefebvre’s definitions, an abstract space approach: this is the case of Athens, return to the Acropolis. There is no human presence in video shots (except the tableaux vivant), so by definition would be the clearest example of abstract space. However, seen in depth, we can conclude that the personal experiences narrated by the author in some specific moments, reconcilliate man with his environment and consequently, there is a return to the absolute space. In contrast, Work in Progress represents absolute space during the entire movie, lived from inside and around the edifice that is being built: we are able to see only a few signs of abstract space in the street signals. Applying Certeau and Lefebvre’s concepts on social space to film analysis in a comparative manner reveal coincidences between the six movies studied in this research. It is observable in the films where the voyeur point of view predominates (e.g. Athens, return to the Acropolis) an abstract conception of the space as well. On the other hand, in the films with absolute space approaches there is also present the walker perspective (e.g. Work in Progress). 5. Conclusions 36 With the expression “narrative sequences” I do not mean that the transitional sequences are not narrative. The difference between them is that sequences in the bus are shorter and the content is not as deep as the other 15 sequences. - 14 - Having analyzed the six films that make up of this research in city representation in films, -particularly European cities-, in this last section I will try to answer the research questions proposed at the beginning of the chapter. In the first place, to the question if there is a main representational approach in these productions, although there are some recurrent features, I would not agree with the contention that there is a primary representational approach. In terms of style the six movies are very personal, as a result, the formal aspects of each of the films discussed in this paper do not coincide generally, but they have some similarities. These similarities are related with particular contents that appear in all of these films: history, war, romantic love affair, and interaction in social space are represented using similar resources (black and white films, monuments, broken elements, abandoned places, and complicated love stories). There is also a recurrent feeling of nostalgia that influences human relationships in the urban environment. We can conclude, thus, that these topics are significant for European filmmakers regarding to city conception and representation. But, from a methodological perspective, how social theories on spatial practices can supply a complementary view to film studies to analyze space representation in films? Narratology and text analysis provide a structural vision of the films that can be linked to the social conceptions of the space, in order to generate typologies of representation. The four concepts used in this research should not be taken as strict and simple definitions -in fact, they are very complex-, but in my opinion they can be tools to be added to text analysis in the following way: the voyeur/walker distinction, can be applied to the camera position regarding to the point of view (from above, below…) and the level of implication within space, using the camera to move around. The abstract/absolute distinction can be applied to space representation, separating official and rational approaches from more personal and emotional ones. These terms can also be useful to analyze issues of power by interrogating on who is behind the camera and the project. Of course there are different motivations behind space representation in films, in some cases ideological. Avoiding identity signs in a city may signify that the author wants the spectator to be focused in the personal stories, but it may also mean that the film is expected to be more international and easily understood in cultural terms (for commercial reasons) or maybe the real cause is that the film is based upon a previous theatre play (as is the case of Caricies) where the space is conceived in a more synthetic way. The three interpretations are valid, but we must pay attention to the space conceptions and practices to get to these conclusions. To sum up, studying spatial practices37 in films make sense as long as our space perception is influenced by images. The spatial practices make reference to a long legacy of avant-garde wandering, from that paradigmatically modern figure, the 37 Lefebvre talks about production of space. - 15 - 19th-century flaneur, to the aleatory drifting of the Surrealists and Situationists in the 20th century. Besides, the experience of space provided by media it is also relevant to understand the spatial practices, in Benjamin’s words, “The roving eye of the 19th century flâneur, who experiences a century’s worth of buildings as he/she strolls, has now been updated by the technologized eye of the moving camera”38. This way, the spatial practices “on the street” –to put it in simplistic terms- are influenced by media technologies, and media technologies –and its representations- are affected by spatial production. Going a step further, Mitchell proposes a new figure called the traceur or parkour, who is a skater, moving around the city very rapidly, as part of a group, from the centre to the suburbs, and vice-versa39. This concept could be an initial idea for a model to study city representations involving fast movement and speed, for instance, productions such as Run, Lola, Run (Twyker, 1995), or science fiction films (Vidoq, Grangé Pitof, 2002) where the special effects create a kind of delirious and chaotic city. But this is just a starting point for further research… Works Cited Aumont, Jacques. The Image. London: British Film Institute, 1997. Augé Marc. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London, New York: Verso, 1995. Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film. London: Routledge,1987. Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin. Film Art: An Introduction. New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2003. Certeau, Michel de. The Practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Elsaesser, Thomas. European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005. Faulkner, Sally. “Catalan city cinema: violence and nostalgia in Ventura Pons’s Carícies”; New Cinemas Journal of Contemporary Film.1(3) (2002): 141-148. Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault. New York: Random House, 1995. Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identit.y Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. 38 Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften I, 135 referenced in Lungstrum, “Expressionist towers of Babel in film and architecture”. Philosophies of the visible, 2002: 153. 39 Mitchell, Placing Words: Symbols, Space and the City, 156. - 16 - Lefebvre, Henri. The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. Lungstrum, Janet. “Expressionist towers of Babel in film and architecture”. In Philosophies of the visible, edited by Wilheim S. Wurzer, 143-154. London: Continuun, 2002. Misek, Richard. “review of European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood by Thomas Elsaesser”, Senses of Cinema. (2006) http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/books/06/40/european-cinemaelsaesser.html (accessed 02-03-2007) Mitchell, William J. Placing Words: Symbols, Space and the City. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2005. ----------------. City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996. Mitchell, W.J.T. “Showing seeing: a critique of visual culture”. Journal of Visual Culture. London: Sage vol. 1(2) (2002): 165-181. Nichols, Bill. “The Voices of documentary”. Movies and Methods. An Anthology (2) 258-273. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. O’Rawe, C. “review on Roberto Rossellini´s Rome Open City” by Sidney Gottlieb (ed) Studies of European Cinema. 2 (2) (2005): 149-151. Parsons, D. L. “Urban Montage”, in Film-Philosophy, volume 3 Number 39, September 1999 http://www.film-philosophy.com/vol3-1999/n39parsons (accessed 29-05-06) Pedro, J. M. de. “Basilio Martín Patino, El hombre que susurraba a los censores”. 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Another Spanish Cinema: Film in Catalunya, 1906 – 2006. (2006) Film Society of Lincoln Center http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/programs/catalunya06.htm (accessed 24-05-06) - 17 - Images Fig.1 still from Work in Progress Fig. 3. Frame of Athens return to the Acropolis Fig.5. one of the firsts frames in People from Rome - 18 - Fig 2. Still frame of Wings of Desire Fig. 4 Still frame from Caresses Fig. 6 Angel’s view in Wings of Desire Fig. 7 Frame from above in a narrative sequence of Caresses Fig. 8 Final frame from People from Rome Gemma San Cornelio Open University of Catalonia (UOC) gsan_cornelio@uoc.edu - 19 -