Global cinema, world cinema

Abstract

Starting with an analysis of the usefulness of the concept of global cinema in the context of contemporary cinema, and utilizing a cosmopolitan perspective, this paper reflects over what it means to conceive of the world, how it can be shown, who can speak about it and how it is configured as an aesthetic challenge. Thus, the experience of globalization becomes everyday; memory, affect are translated, interpreted, not only as a theme but as a structural element, within a multidirectional network, as in the discussions raised by Negri and Hardt, under the aegis of Empire, deconstructing categories such as First/Third world and, by extension, the theory of Third Cinema. In developing these issues, the paper analyzes Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World (1991) and The World (Jia Zhang-ke, 2004), relating them to other films and emphasizing the construction of space and characters.