Memory Policies about the Images of the First World War

Abstract

The article takes the so called memory policies, aimed at preserving the memory of past events and rescue them from oblivion, as a starting point. Taking into account Siegfried Kracauer's reflections about the points of contact between history and photography as tools to preserve the past, the article questions the role of cinema as an instrument of transmission of historical memory. To find an answer, the article approaches the specific case of the First World War and questions the role of the film archive, the part played by newsreels or the place that fiction cinema has held in the commemoration of a key event to European history. The text is based on the reflection over the commemorative factor of the war centennial and on the major articles included in the special issue of the journal L'Atalante.