10.13130/2036-461X/16424
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2036-461X
16424
36/37
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Film and Domestic Space: Architectures, Representations, Dispositif, edited by Stefano Baschiera and Miriam De Rosa Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp. 256
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Reviews / Comptes rendus
2021-11-17
2021-09-21
2021-11-17
2022-12-30
203-204
Cinéma & Cie
Cristina Formenti
2021/11/17
10.13130/2036-461X/16424
203
Università degli Studi di Udine
2036-461X
36/37
en
204
Film and Domestic Space: Architectures, Representations, Dispositif, edited by Stefano Baschiera and Miriam De Rosa Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp. 256
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/16424/14755
21
                                                                                       Film and Domestic Space:
                                                                                       Architectures, Representations,
                                                                                       Dispositif
                                                                                       Edited by Stefano Baschiera and Miriam De Rosa
                                                                                       Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp. 256
                                                                                       DOI 10.13130/2036-461X/16424




                                                                                         As Atxu Amann Y Alcocer and Flavio Martella          to essay films, each chapter investigates the
                                                                                       have highlighted in The Architectural Review,          broader topic of domestic space and cinema in
                                                                                       by having the public space become a synonym            relationship to a different film genre. However,
                                                                                       of danger and harm to public health, the               rather than considering more broadly the
                                                                                       Covid-19 pandemic has led us to rediscover             chosen cinematic form, most chapters adopt
                                                                                       the home as a central place in our lives, ‘a           a case study formula and offer close readings
                                                                                       crucial structure from which to weather the            of a few individual titles. An exception is Iain
                                                                                       crisis’.7 Suddenly, our houses have had to             Robert Smith’s essay ‘What Is Cult When It’s
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                                                                                       become at the same time the only appointed             at Home? Reframing Cult Cinema in Relation
                                                                                       place for labour, leisure and personal life. The       to Domestic Space’. Indeed, Smith not only
                                                                                       theme around which Stefano Baschiera and               looks broadly at cult cinema, but also does
                                                                                       Miriam De Rosa’s edited collection revolves            not discuss the representation of domestic
                                                                                       is thus today more topical than ever. Indeed,          space in these works. It examines, instead,
                                                                                       Film and Domestic Space: Architectures,                domestic space as the place of home viewing,
                                                                                       Representations, Dispositif contributes to             in order to show how fruition in this context
                                                                                       the growing literature addressing spatiality           can impact on how cult cinema is understood
                                                                                       and cinema by attempting to foreground                 and theorized. In terms of geographical
                                                                                       the complex and multifaceted — yet still               contexts, too, some variety can be identified
                                                                                       understudied — relationship between                    in the range of filmic texts discussed in
                                                                                       domesticity and film. As they state in the             Baschiera’s and De Rosa’s collection, even if
                                                                                       introduction, with this collection Baschiera           the focus of most chapters tends to be either
                                                                                       and De Rosa aim to show the various ways               on American or European productions. For
                                                                                       in which one can represent and conceive of             instance, the chapter by Lukas Brašiškis and
                                                                                       ‘domestic space as an architecture, that is,           Nerijus Milerius addresses the less explored
                                                                                       a place to be practised, inhabited, built by a         Baltic cinema, while De Rosa’s own essay
                                                                                       spectator who will feel and acknowledge her/           looks at the most recent works of a filmmaker
                                                                                       his empowerment towards spatiality’ (p. 6).            of non-Euro-American origins, namely the
                                                                                         This objective is achieved through a selection       Israeli Amos Gitai Weinraub.
                                                                                       of essays that look at domesticity within a rich         Finally, richness and variety can be identified
                                                                                       array of audiovisual works. From horror films          in Film and Domestic Space also at the level
                                                                                       to female-fronted biopics, from road movies            of the points of view adopted to explore


                                                                                       Cinéma & Cie vol. 21 no. 36/37 2021 · ISSN 2036-461X                                            203
domesticity within the various contributions.
For instance, we can find chapters that
embrace an architectural angle and thus
consider the home as the house. This is the
                                                 scholarship with that centred on the idea of
                                                 dispositif’ (p. 6), the notion of domestic space
                                                 as dispositif ultimately remains mostly an
                                                 undercurrent. Only in a couple of chapters it is



                                                                                                     P
                                                                                                     E
case for John David Rhodes’s essay, wherein      actually foregrounded, one of them being De
the representation of the Colonial Revival       Rosa’s essay, in which the work of Amos Gitai
house is discussed by looking at an array of     Weinraub becomes the point of departure for
US audiovisual productions ranging from the      showing how the space of the installation can
wartime comedy Christmas in Connection           return a sense of home.




                                                                                                     &
(Peter Godfrey, 1945) to the sitcom Father         Overall, however, Film and Domestic
Knows Best (1954-60). Another example            Space is a rich and thought-provoking edited
is the chapter by Laura Rascaroli, who,          collection that successfully manages to
focusing on two essay films that comment         show how domestic space is far from being
on the house and its structuring function        a stable concept. It also makes apparent
— namely Barbicania (Ila Bêka and Louise         how a full understanding of the interplaying
Lemoine, 2014) and No Home Movie (Chantal        of domesticity and cinema necessitates the
Akerman, 2015) — discusses how the medium        dialogue between a set of different conceptual
of cinema can frame images of the house/         and methodological approaches. Baschiera
home.                                            and De Rosa’s volume will thus likely trigger
  Various are, however, also the chapters        further developments in this emerging sub-
that look at the domestic space from the         field of spatiality and cinema, especially in the
perspective of gender, going at times beyond     wake of the centrality that the Covid-19 crisis
the clichéd binomial of domesticity and the      has brought the house to acquire in our lives.
feminine. Anna Backman Rogers’ chapter
                                                                              Cristina Formenti
on Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015) is emblematic
                                                                [Università degli Studi di Udine]
in this sense, arguing that lesbian desire
in this film is figured as ‘an affective and
emotional history that plays out in liminal
spaces between the social and domestic
stratifications determined by patriarchal law’
(p. 72).
  Finally, in Film and Domestic Space, one can
even find audience-oriented approaches, as
in the aforementioned essay by Robert Smith
or in the one by Beth Carroll, which analyses
the domestic soundscape of those haunted-
house horror films like The Shining (Stanley      Notes
Kubrick, 1980) and Paranormal Activity (Oren
Peli, 2007) that problematize the idea of the
                                                  7
                                                   Atxu Amann Y Alcocer and Flavio Martella,
home as a safe space.                             ‘Public House: The City Folds into the Space
  If a criticism can be moved to Baschiera        of the Home’, The Architectural Review,
                                                  4 June 2020, https://www.architectural-
and De Rosa’s collection it is that, despite
                                                  review.com/essays/public-house-the-
their intention to create ‘a bridge between
                                                  city-folds-into-the-space-of-the-home
the representational reading of domestic
                                                  [accessed 2 July 2021].
space that is at the heart of the existing


204                                                                        Film and Domestic Space
