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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The idea of Europe in Contemporary European Cinema Liz, Mariana Vinagre Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 29. Sep. 2021 THE IDEA OF EUROPE IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN CINEMA Mariana Vinagre Liz PhD in Film Studies 1 This thesis has benefitted from the financial support of FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, doctoral grant SFRH/BD/43258/2008, part of the QREN- POPH, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. 2 Abstract This thesis investigates the idea of Europe – especially as understood by the European Union (EU) – and how it is explored in contemporary European film. Raising polarised views, Europe is a key theme in contemporary society. At the same time, European cinema has become a particularly engaging object of study with the growing interest in the transnational. Combining an examination of both topics, this thesis is structured in two sections. The first part explores the notion of Europe, through an analysis of scholarly work, EU official documentation and interviews with policy-makers at the European Commission. I consider in particular the MEDIA programme, the EU‟s major initiative in support of film. The second part of the thesis is devoted to a contextual and textual examination of a selected corpus of films supported by MEDIA, asking what idea of Europe these represent and construct. Chapters are centred on case studies grouped in two areas: history and memory on the one hand (mainly in heritage films) and spatial and social conceptions of today‟s Europe on the other (primarily in realist dramas). Aiming to foster a sense of belonging, the EU‟s idea of Europe relies on positive values and emotions, as well as on the notions of quality, prestige and artistic value, which constitute the basis for a new European community. The idea of Europe that emerges in contemporary European film is defined by a series of oppositions, between the national and the transnational, art and commerce, thought and emotion. My analysis reveals a complex and contradictory picture of Europe and European cinema, highlighting these concepts‟ changing character in an increasingly globalised world. 3 Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Illustrations ................................................................................................................. 5 Table of Tables ......................................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 8 1. THE IDEA OF EUROPE .................................................................................................... 29 1.1 Europe: history of an idea ............................................................................................ 30 1.2 The EU‟s definition of Europe .................................................................................... 45 2. THE EUROPEAN FILM INDUSTRY AND THE MEDIA PROGRAMME .................... 66 2.1 The European film industry ......................................................................................... 67 2.2 The European Union‟s MEDIA programme ............................................................... 80 3. HISTORY AND MEMORY IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN CINEMA .............. 127 3.1 Celebrating Europe‟s heritage ................................................................................... 127 3.2 Remembering the war ................................................................................................ 148 3.3 Revolution, politics and social change in post-war Europe ....................................... 165 4. THIS IS EUROPE ............................................................................................................. 195 4.1 European cities and filmic representations of urban space ........................................ 195 4.2 Urban dystopias and “state-of-the-nation” films ....................................................... 228 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 269 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 283 APPENDIX A ....................................................................................................................... 304 APPENDIX B ....................................................................................................................... 305 APPENDIX C ....................................................................................................................... 312 4 Table of Illustrations Fig. 2.1 MEDIA 2007 promo 104 Fig. 2.2 Romain Duris in Pot Luck featured in European films, what a joy! 107 Fig. 2.3 Last shot of European films – what a joy!, common to all the clips 108 Fig. 2.4 Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz in Romanticism still alive in 109 Europe’s films Fig. 2.5 Slogan in Romanticism still alive in Europe’s films 109 Fig. 2.6 Scene from All About My Mother in Singing the blues on the silver screen 116 Fig. 2.7 Slogan in Singing the blues on the silver screen 116 Fig. 2.8 Scene from the 2010 MEDIA short film European Cinema. Made for You 119 Fig. 2.9 Scene from the 2010 MEDIA short film European Cinema. Made for You 119 Fig. 2.10 Scene from the 2010 MEDIA short film European Cinema. Made for You 119 Fig. 2.11 Scene from the 2010 MEDIA short film European Cinema. Made for You 119 Fig. 2.12 From father to son: handing out the “passion” for European cinema 120 Fig. 3.1 Beautiful countryside in Lady Chatterley 138 Fig. 3.2 Constance in touch with nature in Lady Chatterley 138 Fig. 3.3 Fictional history in Good Morning, Night 171 Fig. 3.4 “Real” history in Good Morning, Night 171 Fig. 3.5 Alex filming outside the Coca-Cola factory in Good Bye Lenin! 176 Fig. 4.1 European capitals of culture since 1985 197 Fig. 4.2 Defeated tourists in Paris je t’aime I: Steve Buscemi in the Coen 208 Brothers‟ segment Fig. 4.3 Defeated tourists in Paris je t’aime II: Carol eating “globally” 208 Fig. 4.4 London map highlighting the locations of Match Point 213 Fig. 4.5 Pedro Almodóvar filming by the Sagrada Família 215 Fig. 4.6 Similarities between European cities in Russian Dolls 224 Fig. 4.7 Similarities between European cities in Russian Dolls 224 Fig. 4.8 Similarities between European cities in Russian Dolls 224 Fig. 4.9 Similarities between European cities in Russian Dolls 224 Fig. 4.10 The Red Road flat complex in Red Road 232 Fig. 4.11 A neighbour defending the normality of his community in Only Human 239 Fig. 4.12 Windows in Princesses 256 Fig. 4.13 Windows in Princesses 256 Fig. 4.14 Windows in Princesses 256 Fig. 4.15 Windows in Princesses 256 5 Table of Tables Table 2.1 Origin of films distributed in the EU 75 Table 2.2 MEDIA at a glance 85 Table 2.3 MEDIA support for distribution 88 Table 2.4 Origin of films distributed with the support of the MEDIA Selective 90 Scheme 2005-2008 Table 2.5 US, national and non-national European (NNE) films released in Portugal 92 and in the UK 2005-2008 Table 2.6 NNE films released in Portugal and the UK with the support of MEDIA‟s 93 Selective Scheme 2005-2008 Table 2.7 NNE films distributed through the MEDIA Selective Scheme in Portugal 96 and the UK 2005-2008 Table 2.8 Genre of the films distributed in Portugal and the UK 2005-2008 97 Table 2.9 Films featured in the 2007 MEDIA “clips” 106 Table 3.1 Historical films supported by MEDIA 130 Table 4.1 MEDIA “city” films and spaces represented 200 6 Acknowledgements It would not have been possible