Rome in the Cinema of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: The Image of Urban Space – МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

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Olga V. BEZZUBOVA
Saint Petersburg State University
7-9, Universitetskaya Embankment (Universitetskaya naberezhnaya), Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Museum Management and Historical Monuments Preservation, Associate Professor
кандидат философских наук
PhD (in Philosophy)
e-mail: o.bezzubova@spbu.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-0494-3386

Aleksey V. SMIRNOV
Saint Petersburg State University
7-9, Universitetskaya Embankment (Universitetskaya naberezhnaya), Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Cultural Studies, Philosophy of Culture and Aesthetics
Doctor of Science in Philosophy
Professor
e-mail: aleksey.smirnov@spbu.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-4640-6263

Rome in the Cinema of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: The Image of Urban Space

Abstract: The cinematic image of a modern large city often attracts the attention of modern researchers. This article focuses on the specifics of constructing the image of Rome in the cinema of the second half of the twentieth century. As a starting point, the image of ancient Rome in the peplum genre of films is considered, where Rome is depicted not as a city, but as the main topos of the Roman Empire or Republic, and the elements of the urban space of Rome form a visualized and mythologized representative of the Roman political system. The following method of constructing urban space was proposed in the artistic tradition of Italian neorealism. An analysis of V. de Sica's films Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D. allows us to conclude that this trend considers and constructs the urban space of Rome as a place of social heterogeneity, as well as social contradictions and conflicts. In the films of late neorealism, Rome is also depicted as a space of social contradictions that have not disappeared, but have simply shifted to the area of the Roman outskirts. An example of a different approach to the representation of the urban space of Rome is the American film Roman Holiday, released in 1953. In this film, the city is depicted as a place of universal happiness, and the urban space becomes the basis for the creation of a number of new mythologemes of modern mass culture. In the films Eclipse by M. Antonioni and La Dolce Vita by F. Fellini, Rome becomes a space for gaining personal existential experience, in particular the experience of loneliness and social frustration. Despite the ambiguous nature of the experience acquired by the main characters, such films gain particular popularity largely due to the special use of the image of Rome. A special example of the creation of a cinematic image of Rome is the film The Belly of an Architect by P. Greenaway. Due to a number of visual means and the use of European cultural mythologemes, the English director managed to present the urban space of Rome as the embodiment of the idea of absolute architecture, that is, the space of artistic and aesthetic meanings realized in the architectural masterpieces of the "eternal city".

Key words: urban space, Rome in cinema, city in cinema, cinema of Italy, Italian culture, F. Fellini, Italian neorealism, image of the city, architecture in cinema, mass culture, modern mythology, cinema of the 20th century.

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For Citation:

Bezzubova, О, Smirnov, A. (2024) Rome in the Cinema of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: The Image of Urban Space. International Journal of Cultural Research, 4 (57). 77–89. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2024_4_77

DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2024_4_77