Eccentric Images of Urban Space in French Cinematography

Abstract

The article dwells upon the urban space representation in the French cinema. The analysis is mainly based on the films “And God Created Woman” by R. Vadim, “My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days” by A. Zulawsky, “The Captive” by Ch. Ackerman, “Hotel America” by A. Téchiné, “Coasting the Coast” by A. Varda , “About Nice” by J. Vigo, “Port of Shadows” by M. Carné, “The Moon in the Gutter” by J.-J. Beineix. The author takes up the study of comprehension of urban eccentric and concentric spaces formerly undertaken by Yu. Lotman, G. Simmel, W. Benjamin. As put it some of these researchers, almost every city seems to be an eccentric phenomenon which turns a man’s life into a kind of performance. Still, the author believes that the concept of eccentricity provides a basis for another related characterization — a phantom city. Not just the city as such provokes eccentricity, but there is a certain type of cities in which this quality reveals to the maximum extent. The most strikingly it is represented in the films set in coastal cities which are normally associated with some kinds of mirages. The author comes to the conclusion that the image of a coastal city in its cultural representation (in literature and films), whatever its intonation or accent, is traditionally associated with the concepts of mirage, ephemerality and fallacy. Such cities arouse feelings of marginality, of being in between the real world and a fantastic one, a sense of theatricalization, illusiveness of action – in a word, of eccentricity. These are the key typological features of coastal cities fitting into the characteristics of eccentric spaces.