Represantation of urban space in cinema: A review of films in Izmir between 1950-2016

Abstract

Cinema in Turkey, which dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, has been a platform to reflect the images of the changing cities that have been affected by the cultural and economic transformations in the society. The purpose of this study is to examine the city of İzmir and its urban space characteristics as representations in cinema. Therefore, the scenes in the movies have been analyzed according to the representation of urban spaces in different periods, daily life presented in the scenes, as well as the transformation of urban spaces since 1950s. There are three stages in the study. Firstly, the films which were shot in İzmir by Turkish filmmakers have been listed. Then, as a determining factor, the movies which were shot in the urban spaces of İzmir have been considered. This study focuses on the movies which were shot within the boundary of the city. Secondly, the period between 1950 and 2016 has been divided into three sections. Films have been divided into periods according to the representation styles and subjects of films in between1950-2016. The reason for this is that the films, in which the subject, location representation, space typology, social and cultural life, etc. are similar, have been collected and examined together in a period. Thirdly, the symbolic urban spaces which are frequently at the foreground of the movies have been evaluated according to their transformations of morphological-social, visual-temporal and functional features. Consequently, this study contributes to the existing literature as it examines relation between the city and cinema through a large scale covering over 100 movies. It analyses the relationship between the represented urban spaces, and the development and transformation of the city on the basis of the urban history of İzmir. The results of the analyses have been discussed within the framework developed by Carmona et. al, under morphological-social, visual-temporal and functional dimensions of urban spaces. Keywords: Urban Public Space and Cinema, Cinema and the City, Representation of Urban Space in Cinema.