Memory and Imagination in Film

Résumé : Lombardo expands upon the intuitions of Baudelaire, proposing a new understanding of cinephilia as the interplay of the memory and the imagination of both filmmakers and spectators. Works by Scorsese, Lynch, Jarmusch and Van Sant are presented as imaginative uses of the history of cinema, as well as the histories of painting, music, literature and photography. Quotations, allusions, and more complex stylistic devices combine to become conscious or unconscious re-elaborations of works from the past and the present. The question of spectators' participation is discussed at length, alongside detailed analysis that aims to disentangle the various elements within specific film sequences.