Urban Alienation and Cinematic Space: A Comparative Study of Amélie and Still Life

  • Unique Paper ID: 185490
  • PageNo: 1873-1876
  • Abstract:
  • This paper explores how Amélie (2001) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Still Life (2006) by Jia Zhangke use urban space to represent alienation, memory, and identity. These films, emerging from distinct aesthetic and political contexts, interrogate the emotional and social consequences of urban life. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theory, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, and Marxist urban critique, the paper examines how cinematic form constructs space as both material environment and emotional terrain. While Amélie imagines Paris as a whimsical space of connection and fantasy, Still Life depicts Fengjie as a disintegrating cityscape shaped by displacement and historical erasure. The films suggest contrasting modes of urban alienation—one softened by imagination and intimacy, the other hardened by material loss and spatial violence.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{185490,
        author = {DR. BINDU ANN PHILIP},
        title = {Urban Alienation and Cinematic Space: A Comparative Study of Amélie and Still Life},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {5},
        pages = {1873-1876},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=185490},
        abstract = {This paper explores how Amélie (2001) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Still Life (2006) by Jia Zhangke use urban space to represent alienation, memory, and identity. These films, emerging from distinct aesthetic and political contexts, interrogate the emotional and social consequences of urban life. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theory, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, and Marxist urban critique, the paper examines how cinematic form constructs space as both material environment and emotional terrain. While Amélie imagines Paris as a whimsical space of connection and fantasy, Still Life depicts Fengjie as a disintegrating cityscape shaped by displacement and historical erasure. The films suggest contrasting modes of urban alienation—one softened by imagination and intimacy, the other hardened by material loss and spatial violence.},
        keywords = {Urban Alienation, Cinematic Space, Spatial Theory, Lived Experience, Phenomenology, Modernization, Memory and Identity, Displacement.},
        month = {October},
        }

Cite This Article

PHILIP, D. B. A. (2025). Urban Alienation and Cinematic Space: A Comparative Study of Amélie and Still Life. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(5), 1873–1876.

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