A cidade como espaço opressor: análise dos filmes Ladri di biciclette e The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Every character within a narrative fiction film inhabit a certain spatial context that involves the consecution of their actions, the persecution of their goals and the satisfaction of their needs. As in reality, narrative fictional films present a set of intervenients that develop their being and acting within the possibilities or impositions of the spatial ambient in which they participate. Each film presents different conceptions of space – urban or rural, natural or artificial, open or closed, determined or indetermined, visible or invisible, real or fictional, communicated or imagined -, always as indispensable parts of the dramatic evolution of a history and its characters. This research, supported by a relevant theoretical background concerning typologies and functions of the filmic narrative space, adopts the theme of the city and its possible oppressor role as limitative of actions and behaviours as a reference to the referred regards on narrative and fictional space in cinema. To fulfil this analysis, we use two film examples of different time and nature – “Ladri di Biciclette” (1948) by Vittorio de Sica, and “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) by Frank Darabont – aiming to gauge the discursive and narrative instauration of the urban context as antagonist and as a determinant condition for creating conflicts between the main film characters and their environment.