From Empire to the World

This book investigates London and Paris as 'migrant cities' in contemporary British and French cinema. The act of migration, of leaving behind one's home to be a 'stranger in a strange land' is one of the oldest tales of urban mobility. This innovative study focuses on Paris and London, two of the most iconic and represented cities on celluloid, as 'migrant cities', featuring the arrival, settlement and departure of migrant figures stemming from the decline of imperial rule to the present day. Drawing upon examples from contemporary British and French cinema, including the work of Michael Haneke, Claire Denis, Horace Ove and Stephen Frears, this book takes the reader on a journey through the sights and sounds of 'migrant' London and Paris, providing entirely new ways of visualizing and conceptualizing the cities we think we already know. It develops innovative conceptual tools for understanding and analyzing the depiction of space in the cinema. It draws insights from the field of cultural geography in order to produce an interdisciplinary study of migration as featured in film. It offers new ways of thinking about cities in the cinema while also revisiting older images and tropes associated with the urban experience.