The French New Wave Archive Project Bhargavi Narayanan

The French New Wave Archive Project - Bhargavi Narayanan

What is it? The French New Wave Archive project seeks to create an online archive of the cinema of the French New Wave as a narrative of city spaces they are set in. The archive will map the city spaces as rendered in the films and create a comprehensive documentation that visualizes the ‘moment’ of the city spaces in the late 1950 s and 1960 s. Apart from the images/clips from the films, the archive will also contain photographs, documents and other relevant information that contribute to understanding the politics of the spaces. The archive will be as much an archive of spaces in the cinema, as it is of the genre. It will be a dual map of the film spaces and ‘real’ spaces and through the juxtaposition of both, will paint a portrait of the city at a particular time frame.

Why is it important? § Non-traditional archive project, based on a spatial approach to film studies that reveals the little explored connections between cinema and the architectonics of space. §It provides a different lens to approach/understand city spaces. § It relies heavily on tools offered by digital technology to visualize and make sense of humanistic data. §Database that can foster interesting interdisciplinary research engagements.

Who is it relevant for? §Film theorists and enthusiasts §Architects interested in architecture of city spaces §Historians (the ‘moment’ of a city) §Geographers ( innovative mapping techniques) §Digital Humanists §Anyone interested in or nostalgic about cities or city spaces

How is it going to be? §The city space will be represented diagrammatically on a (real) map. §The movement of the characters will be mapped on this, with allowances for ambiguities and fictional spaces. §The mise-en-scene of the films will be stitched together to simulate the journey/path of the characters and the city they experience. Archival and contemporary photographs and other relevant documents about the city space will also be used. ØGoal: A layered, multi-sectional map that can be ‘toured’ by users. ØOption to coalesce the layers into one another and tour film, fictional and real city spaces at the same time. ØOr to tour the city as one protagonist only or one type of space only.

Cleo from 5 to 7 14 th arrondissement, Paris.

Vivre Sa vie 5 th arrondissement, Paris.

Visualizing the spaces: http: //parismoviewalks. co. uk/ http: //www. thecinetourist. net/les 400 -coups-paris-locations. html http: //projectcinemacity. com/ http: //www. wbstudiotour. co. uk/en /tour

The challenges: How to map the internal journey of the characters? (problem of affect) What about films like Hiroshima Mon Amor (dir. Alain Resnais, 1959) that do not have such explicit physical journeys but are films about city spaces in crisis? How do we map politics of memory and desire? Ø play with the topography of the diagrammatic map. Ø Develop a fractal map of multiple city spaces to highlight their similarities and differences (innovative map that challenges linearity of time and space). SOLUTION: collaborate from the start with software developers and geographers to develop a tool that can handle ambiguous, multi-layered maps.

Work Plan and Implementation § The project will be implemented over a three year timeline. § First year – Collecting relevant resources for each film (data mining, traveling to the cities, interview with scholars/critics/film buffs who are knowledgeable about the shooting locations). § Second year – Compilation and review of data, analysis of tools, designing suitable tools/aids for visualization. § Third year – Actual visualization and getting the archive online.

Budget Team of 8 – 2 software developers, 2 film theorists, 1 geographer, 1 artist, 1 architect, 1 historian. No of work hours per day – 8 x 5= 40 hours @ $50 per hour. = $ 2000 x 12 x 3 = 72, 000 Web space and maintenance - = $ 5, 000 x 3 = 15, 000 Software/equipment (for the team) = $ 2, 000 x 8 = 16, 000 Travel to city spaces – Other over head costs - = $ 2, 000 x 8 x 3 = 48, 000 = $ 4, 000 Total - $1, 55, 000

Evaluation § Project evaluations at the middle of the second year and the end of third year. § Evaluation in the middle of second year – In-house evaluation. Ø In-house evaluation: Research associates and members of the project evaluate each others work. Will happen during the data compilation, processing and development of tools/software period. §Evaluation at the end of three years – Panel of experts Ø Panel will consist of experts from disciplines of History, Film and Media studies, Sociology, Digital Humanities and Geography. ØSince the archive will be an online initiative, comments/feedback from users will be solicited and considered. This will be an ongoing process.

Dissemination: §Archive will be made available online for the general public. §Any research/publication using the archive will be linked/added to the archive. §Based on the evaluation and learning from the three years, the archive can expand to incorporate other cinema and city spaces in those. §It can work towards being an archive of postmodern city spaces across different cultural backgrounds.