David Roche

Armelle Parey, Isabelle Robin and Dominique Sipière, eds. : Happy Endings and Films

Happy Endings and Films focuses on a topic that, as the selective bibliography shows, has rarely been analyzed (Richard Neupert’s The End: Narration and Closure in the Cinema is probably the most notable book on the subject). And yet, as the editors recall in their efficient introduction, assumptions about happy endings abound: they are often associated with Hollywood and generally thought to be simple, conventional and conservative, and thus ultimately suspicious and acceptable only when iro...

(De)constructing "America": the Case of Emir Kusturica's Arizona Dream (1993)

By means of an analysis of Kusturica’s only film about America, Arizona Dream, this article argues that while the United States offers a vision of a united society founded on diversity, it also represses, altering in the process both society and the landscape. National unity is consequently a dream – a dream the film suggests that has often been dreamed up by un-Americans. Filtered through Kusturica’s own perceptions of America – and his position on the Balkan War (1991-2001) – the film seems to suggest sadness at the loss of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural perspective. Through its representations of geography and ethnic diversity, and its dense network of filmic citations, what Arizona Dream ultimately offers is consequently a European auteur’s view of the United States rather than a systematic deconstruction of the “imagined community” of “America.”