10. Total Cinema as Mode of Production

Abstract

Chapter 10 examines Bazin’s ‘myth of total cinema’ in light of a major trend in recent world cinema to focus on monumental landscapes, in films by and ( The Story of the Weeping Camel/ 2019). Taken together, these films testify to the remarkable convergence among filmmakers from the most disparate corners of the globe in resorting to expansive landscapes as a totalising cosmos and a sealed-off stage for the drama of existence, where realism manifests itself by means of real locations.