Place, Setting, Perspective

This book examines the films of the Italian filmmaker, Nanni Moretti, from a fresh viewpoint, employing the increasingly significant study of space within a film narrative. The book is conceived with the awareness that space cannot be studied only in aesthetic or narrative terms. Social, political and cultural aspects of narrated spaces are equally important if a thorough appraisal is to be achieved of an oeuvre such as Moretti's, which is profoundly associated with socio-political commentary and analysis. After an exploration of various existing outlines of narrative space in film, the book offers a particular definition of the term based on the notions of place, setting and perspective. Place relates to the physical aspect of narrative space and specifically concerns cityscapes, landscapes, interiors and exteriors in the real world. Setting concerns genre characteristics of narrative space, notably its differentiated use in melodrama, detective stories, fantasy narratives and gender based scenarios. Perspective involves the point of view taken optically by the camera which supports the standpoint of Moretti's personal philosophy expressed through the aesthetic aspects which he employs to create narrative space. The study is based on close textual analysis of Moretti's eleven major feature films to date, using the formal film language of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound. The aim is to show how Moretti selects, organizes, constructs, assembles and manipulates the many elements of narrative space into an entire work of art, to enable meanings and pleasures for the spectator.