A invenção do futuro no cinema: representações de futuro nos filmes de Méliès, Lang e Menzies

Abstract

This work proposes an analysis of three films with a futuristic theme dating from the beginning of the 20th century: Le voyage dans la Lune (1902) by Georges Méliès, Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang and Things to Come (1936) by Willian Cameron Menzies. The analysis has as a theoretical assumption the methodological possibility of transforming films into historical documents, as suggested and initiated by the third generation of the Annales School in the 1970s, following the singular acceleration process of time in modernity (Koselleck, 2006), so as to enable fiction to project futures which are different from the past, recognizing the typically modern structure of narrative present in cinema (CHARNEY and SCHWARTZ, 2004) and the characterization of cinematographic works as a historical artifact integrated into the historical culture of its time (RÜSEN). From these premises, the objective is to analyze, discuss and compare the first representations of future in Western cinema and propose a reflection on the possible relationship between the selected films and the collective expectation of future at the time of their realization.