1 On Space in Cinema Jacques Levy Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
[email protected] Abstract The relationship between space and cinema is problematic. Cinema can be seen as a spatial art par excellence, but there are good reasons why this view is superficial. This article focuses on geographical films, which aim to increase our understanding of this dimension of the social world by attempting to depict inhabited space and the inhabitance of this space. The argument is developed in two stages. First, I attempt to show the absence both of space as an environment and of spatiality as an agency in cinematographic production. Both of these contribute to geographicity. Second, I put forward and expand on the idea of opening up new channels between cinema and the social sciences that take space as their object. This approach implies a move away from popular fiction cinema (and its avatar the documentary film) and an establishment of links with aesthetic currents from cinema history that are more likely to resonate with both geography and social science. The article concludes with a “manifesto” comprising ten principles for a scientific cinema of the inhabited space. Keywords: space, spatiality, cinema, history of cinema, diegetic space, distancing, film music, fiction, documentary, scientific films Space appears to be everywhere in film, but in fact it is (almost) nowhere. This observation leads us to reflect on the ways in which space is accommodated in films. I will focus in particular on what could be termed “geographical” films in the sense that they aim to increase our understanding of this dimension of the social world by 2 attempting to depict inhabited space and the inhabitance of this space.