This thesis examines the characteristic features and the aesthetic of the films of the German director Wim Wenders. The examination focuses on the relationship between image and story central to the composition of Wenders' films as well as his theoretical writings. The thesis concentrates its investigation mainly on the films <i>Alice in den Städten</i> (1974), <i>Tokyo</i><i> </i><i>Ga</i> (1983-5), <i>Paris</i><i>, </i><i>Texas</i><i> </i>(1984), <i>Der himmel über </i><i>Berlin</i> (1987) and <i>Lisbon Story</i> (1994). Wenders' exploration of the relationship between image and story is centred on the concept of the photographic image as the most accurate and reliable record of the appearance of physical reality. Wenders hopes that the ability of the photographic image to reproduce reality in pictorial form can be harnessed by the cinema in order to promote a mode of visual perception that respects the existence of material phenomena. Wenders' approach to story film is dialectical: on the one hand he considers a filmic story as a threat to the integrity of the images because, used to further the construction of the story, images lose their genuine function of asserting the existence of the material phenomena appearing in them. On the other hand, Wenders knows of and respects the deeply humane values of stories and story-telling and the desire for stories among cinema audiences. The most notable of his films are determined by the attempt to find a solution to this dilemma by respecting the coherence a story can bestow on the images, yet reducing its function to that of a framing device. In using stories as frames for the presentation of images Wenders hopes to allow his images to speak, to tell a story that is found within the images of his films, rather than being imposed on the images or existing as a dominant factor of the composition of the films. As can be shown in the chapter of the thesis focusing on <i>Lisbon Story</i>, Wenders makes corresponding assertions relating to film sound at a later stage in his career, considering sound to be a tool equally capable of rendering an accurate "audio" record of physical reality. Similar to his approach to images, Wenders again avoids employing sounds primarily for the construction of a story. As opposed to mainstream cinema where images and sounds exist to tell a story, they both appear in Wenders' films in their own right.

This thesis provides in-depth analysis of my practice-led PhD and the methods used to focus on key areas of research - namely exploring the shifting perceptual parameters revealed when analogue films are transferred to digital formats. With this process audio-visual content previously locked inside film’s decaying form is resurrected as immaterial code within a malleable frame. My work utilised this spectral quality to examine different layers of film representation, observing its inner structure, while also stepping back to contemplate its content from a self-reflexive distance. These multiple viewpoints introduced unique spaces within which to study the analogue past from a digital perspective: The filmstrip’s mechanically regulated motion seamlessly combines still images, sound and light into analogue interpretations of space-time. My work digitally desynchronised these elements, revealing the structural gaps between them while also suggesting their merger with a new perceptual model. Moving beyond internal film worlds to the boundaries they share with the physical viewing space, another layer of disjointed separation was introduced by producing screens that struggled to contain film content within their frames. Stepping back further, these screens occupied a space caught between the fixed viewpoint of a cinema and the multiple perspectives allowed by gallerybased installations. The shifting frame of these hybrid spaces created an oscillation between passive submersion within, and analytical distance from mediated worlds. By unmooring and offsetting the precise alignment between film structure, screens and viewing spaces, my practice revealed overlapping edges and disjointed spaces within which media from different eras interacted. This opened up new areas of research that fed directly into my theoretical studies (the thesis layout itself shifts outwards, from media structures to viewing spaces). This approach enabled me to produce a substantial body of work, iii offering an original contribution to this field.

Film noir is a term created after fact and applied back to films from a previous period and studies have often conflated very different films and privileged some facets over others in an endeavour to structure a definition. Some scholars have identified that a relatively small group of films came to be seen by the Hollywood Left as highly significant; and that their discussions of these films were the products of deeper anxieties faced by this group in the immediate post-war period. Subsequent conclusions were made that the Hollywood Left was opposed to this generalised categorisation similar to contemporary understandings of film noir. The thesis examines those films now considered as film noir in their original contexts. Studying the reception of films generally considered to be representative of contemporary understandings of film noir, such as Boomerang (Elia Kazan, 1947) The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946) and Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947) shows how they were parts of very different cycles at the time and not seen critically as a homogeneous group. The thesis also examines the work of key filmmakers who were making films with pertinent social messages, before concluding with an examination of an incredibly divisive political film, The Iron Curtain (William A. Wellman, 1948). This study investigates the debates of the post-war period relating to the films currently seen as film noir to highlight the distinctions between the films and how their positionings were understood. Analysing key writings from journals, the trade press and newspapers, this research shows how and why specific films caused concern for certain leftist personnel and how particular genres of films are seen now as similar to one another, yet were once understood as starkly opposed.

In this thesis I examine the relationship between a screenplay and the films made from it. I test the hypothesis that a film based on an original (not adapted from an existing text) screenplay is an adaptation of this screenplay. In order to investigate the potential range of adaptations that occur during the process of film production, I commissioned a short screenplay which was made into a film five times, by five different production teams, each entirely independent of one another. Utilising these films as my primary set of data, I engage in comparative analysis of the screenplay to the five films and of each of the five films to one another. My framework for analysis is grounded in adaptation studies, which has engaged in close comparative analysis of novel to film, but has not made significant inquiry into the discrete phase of adaptation between screenplay and film. Additionally, I argue that an investigation into the relationship between written and filmed creative work is ideally conducted by engaging with practice and practitioners. My thesis is therefore comprised of dual written and filmed components.

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This thesis aims to assess the originality, the aesthetic value and the ethical stance of Daniele Ciprì and Franco Maresco’s cinema through an examination of the representation of Palermo in their three feature-length films Lo zio di Brooklyn / The Uncle from Brooklyn (1995), Totò che visse due volte / Totò Who Lived Twice (1998) and Il ritorno di Cagliostro / The Return of Cagliostro (2003) and their works on video. The aim is to demonstrate how their cinema reflects a need to delve deeply into the most unsettling aspects of Sicilian society and acts as a form of resistance against dominant ideologies and sources of power. In addition to areas traditionally related to film studies, the thesis encompasses perspectives ranging from anthropology, ecocriticism, philosophy and psychoanalysis to cultural, social and urban studies. It examines Ciprì and Maresco’s use of humour, drawing on Peter Sloterdijk’s studies on Kynicism, Luigi Pirandello’s concept of humour as ‘the art of the opposite’ and the carnivalesque as discussed by Ella Shohat and Robert Stam in their application of Mikhail Bakhtin’s studies to cinema. Focusing on how representations of spatiality convey meanings and reflect the real city, Chapter 1, ‘Cityscapes’, deals with how urban aspects of contemporary Palermo have inspired Ciprì and Maresco’s vision of an enclosed archaic world of ruins and rubble, assessing the impact that the Second World War bombings and the remains of illegal buildings have had on Palermo and considering the phenomenon of the sprawling city. The investigation draws on Bakhtin’s notion of ‘chronotope’ with reference to studies on the road movie and flânerie. Chapter 2, ‘Bodies’, investigates the most characteristic aspects of Ciprì and Maresco’s representation of the human body. It looks at the carnivalesque and the neo-baroque aspects of their cinema and examines how the conflictual relationships between sons and mothers in their all-male world leads to a constant need for sons to affirm their primacy as macho men. It also examines how their representation of masculinity is strongly identified with the feminine and concludes with a discussion on hunger and its association with death and the sacred. Chapter 3 deals with identity and the concept of the Other seen in relation to a type of Sicilianity claimed by Ciprì and Maresco. It looks at how their representation of Palermo presents an autarchic world controlled by an all-powerful Mafia and a hybrid of Christianity and paganism coupled with an obsessive fear of the hereafter. Finally, it examines their use of mock-documentary, the influence of literary texts and the use of Italian subtitles for the Palermitan dialect spoken in their films, focusing on how dialect predominates relegating Italian to the language of the Other. The conclusion includes a review of the directors’ poetics, focusing on what most characterises their vision of Palermo and evaluating the key findings that emerge from the thesis. It considers how their cinema fits into the context of contemporary art cinema and assesses their impact on Italian cinema, concluding with suggestions for further research.

Existing research on British cinema during the 1940s has often assumed an opposition between realism and fantasy or, as it is also known, 'realism and tinsel'. However, through an analysis of contemporary critical reception and censorship discourses, it becomes apparent how this division was nowhere near as clearly defined as is often argued. Discussions surrounding a supposed ‘ban’ on horror during 1942-45, and the subsequent debates regarding realism in the post-war climate, demonstrate how realism was often associated with fantasy and vice versa. While the ‘quality’ realist film of the 1940s demonstrates a concern with verisimilitude and the reproduction of the surface appearances of reality, when confronting the obscene or the taboo hidden below this surface realism was deemed to be far more closely associated with ‘horrific’ fantasy. This thesis therefore looks beyond common perceptions of British cinema during this period through an analysis of contemporary discussions surrounding the relationship between ‘realism and tinsel’, with a particular emphasis upon the misapprehension that the horror ‘ban’ signified a falling interest in fantasy in favour of the ‘quality’ of realism. By also looking at a number of films not often included within such debates, this approach contributes to the discussion of a period largely unacknowledged in terms of horror in British cinema.

Michael Balcon has been acknowledged for his work at Ealing Studios from 1939, and particularly for a portfolio of films produced in the decade 1942-1952. Charles Barr’s 1977 history of Ealing Studios and John Ellis’ 1975 article on Ealing explore Balcon's ‘agency’ - the ways in which he exercised authority, and the decisions and deals he committed to, in order to achieve success - in the production of films such as Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and Passport to Pimlico (1949). Yet, despite the fact that Balcon produced 152 films between 1924 and 1936, of which 133 are features3 - and despite the fact that Balcon produced across many genres during that period, facilitating the use of many different technical and aesthetic approaches to cinema, Balcon has not been fully acknowledged in the initial, interwar years of his career in film production. His role in the formation and development of Gainsborough Pictures has been assessed in Pam Cook’s edited history of the firm.4 However, Balcon’s contribution to British film industry development at the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation (GBPC) - during a key period from 1931 to 1936, when he was responsible for a significant proportion of British films viewed in British cinemas - has not been subjected to a dedicated and comprehensive appraisal. This thesis represents research into the relationship between industrial and commercial development, governmental intervention, and that which is known of Balcon's policies and practices; the choice of films produced, the film production techniques adopted and encouraged - and the technicians and artists he managed and worked with.