Film, Hot War Traces and Cold War Spaces
- Analyses previously neglected visual material ranging from newsreels from the First World War to amateur footage of Hiroshima before the bombing and television news reports from the 1970s
- Establishes connections between films and events which had never been brought together in the same monograph
This book explores the ways in which film engages with historical events and their impact on present-day landscapes, through a spatial reading of film articulated through the process of charting both creative and coherent cinematic topographies. As the authority of the archive wrestles with the popularity of fictional narratives, this book delves into the debate on the relationship between fiction and documentary in hitherto neglected and surprising contexts. It offers the reader a unique approach to the study of archival footage and documentaries in relation to their fictional counterpart, mainstream films set in the same locations and addressing similar themes, including both live-action films and animations. From images of the places taken during or soon after the facts they represent to the intricacies of retrospective images of the events made years later, the films and footage investigated in this book offer a profound reflection on the ways in which we remember, imagine and experience the past through the complex mediation of film.
Prologue - Tranquility Base, Mare Tranquillitatis, Moon, 20 July 1969, 8:17 pm (UTC)
Part I – Hot War
1. Latin Bridge, Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary, 28 June 1914, 11:00 am
2. Huesca, Aragón, Spain, 20 May 1937, 5.00 am
3. Sobibór, Generalgouvernement, Occupied Poland, 14 October 1943, 4:00 pm
4. Hiroshima, Chūgoku Region, Japan, 6 August 1945, 8.15 am
Part II – Cold War
5. San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 11 May 1960, 8:05 pm
6. Olympiapark, Munich, Germany, 5 September 1972, 4:30 am
7. Via Fani, Rome, Lazio, Italy, 16 March 1978, 9.02 am
8. Bornholmer Straße, East Berlin, GDR, 9 November 1989, 11.30 pm
Epilogue - Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA, 10 January 1914, 1.30 pm
The strengths of Film, Hot War Traces and Cold War Spaces are manifold. Cinquegrani’s concept is as intellectually stimulating as it is original, and his filmography (which includes many lesser-known films from many different traditions) is impressive [...] this excellent, provocative book should be on the reading list of everyone interested in film and memory. It realizes the promise of the ‘spatial turn’ in film studies, often brilliantly. Highly recommended
The strengths of Film, Hot War Traces and Cold War Spaces are manifold. Cinquegrani’s concept is as intellectually stimulating as it is original, and his filmography (which includes many lesser-known films from many different traditions) is impressive [...] this excellent, provocative book should be on the reading list of everyone interested in film and memory. It realizes the promise of the ‘spatial turn’ in film studies, often brilliantly. Highly recommended.
Across the 20th century, cinema, documentaries, and amateur footage have deposited invisible layers of film over a wide range of human settlements.Maurizio Cinquegrani’s immaterial archaeological excavations across time and space make a novel contribution to our violent history by demonstrating how the moving image has shaped our collective imagination. At a difficult moment of our humanity, this is an important volume that should make us pay attention.
Cinquegrani presents a highly original take on the relationship between history, memory and the moving image. Discussing eight key episodes from the twentieth century, from WWI to the fall of the Berlin Wall, he skilfully navigates between visual materials such as newsreels, TV footage, documentaries and Hollywood films. This book offers a bold new methodology for the analysis of film, history and memory studies.
