Cinema and the City in the Age of Planetary Urbanization

Amid deepening ecological and democratic crises, urban theory is changing fundamentally. Film and cinema—media historically intertwined with the city—have likewise undergone a profound transformation in its modes of representation and visual culture since the late 1980s. Today, filmmakers, photographers, and radical artists investigate the distant landscapes and territories of extended urbanization in all its forms. Films like Behemoth (Zhao Liang, 2015), Homo Urbanus (Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine, 2017), and Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, 2012) exemplify this genre. But how do cinema and the city mutually shape each other? This book stages an encounter between film and the theory of planetary urbanization by deploying the notion of the Sensoriums of Planetary Urbanization. It offers a deep analysis of the multifaceted experiences of urban life—within and beyond the city.