"Lo sguardo proibito". Note sulla cinematografia distopica a partire da Siegfried Kracauer

Abstract

This short essay arises from an attempt to examine contemporary or post-classical dystopian cinematography in the light of the specific approach with which Siegfried Kracauer interprets and exposes, respectively, the detective novel and propaganda cinema. The aim of the work is thus to reflect on the social dynamics that inform and are informed by dystopian cinema on the one hand, and the potential propagandistic content that such works can convey on the other. The thesis advanced here is that whereas "classical" dystopian cinematography aimed to denounce the outcomes of potential futures, contemporary dystopia, if analyzed from such a perspective, constitutes rather an apology or denunciation of the present itself.