Brief encounter: Matt Damon in Marseille

Azcona, María Del Mar (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Deleyto, Celestino (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Stillwater McCarthy (2021) brings together Matt Damon, a Hollywood star with cosmopolitan credentials, and Marseille, a crucible of civilizations often described as a cosmopolitan city. Damon plays Bill Baker, an Oklahoman redneck who must travel regularly to Marseille to visit his daughter in jail. For Bill, a character from a small, quiet mid-U.S. town, Marseille is all excess and opacity, almost impossible to navigate. Large parts of the film are spoken in French, a language that the protagonist neither speaks nor understands.This article uses a cosmopolitan perspective to explore the consequences of the encounter between the Hollywood star and the European city. As will be argued, the ambivalent cosmopolitanism of both Damon’s star persona and Marseille converge in an irresistible but ultimately impossible way. This article explores the dynamics between these two drives by means of a spatial perspective that sheds some light on the multiplying facets of cosmopolitanism in contemporary cinema, including mainstream cinema, and highlights the fraught interface between cosmopolitanism as a utopian ethical aspiration and political agenda, on the one hand, and an everyday reality, on the other.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1080/25785273.2023.2260240

Año: 2024

Publicado en: Transnational Screens 15, 3 (2024), 253-270
ISSN: 2578-5273

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 0.6 - Visual Arts and Performing Arts (Q1) - Communication (Q3)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.334 - Visual Arts and Performing Arts (Q1) - Communication (Q2)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/H23-20R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2021-123836NB-I00

Tipo y forma: Article (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Filología Inglesa (Dpto. Filolog.Inglesa y Alema.)