Meaning of Space in Cinema: An Analysis on Dogtooth

Introduction

The relationship between cinema and space constitutes one the most essential components of meaning creation in film. Spaces are of great importance for the establishment of meaning in films. These spaces add value to the film in terms of their emotional bonds with the audience. Cinema creates the meaning by featuring spaces and molding them within the context of economic, political and communal aspects. One needs to scrutinize this relation in order to interpret the film. In the director’s mise-en-scene, the human-space relationship constitutes the basis of the plot while the meaning created through the characters’ relationship with the space makes up the film’s cinematic universe. Space is undoubtedly one of the main means of the art of cinema. Spaces are the fields of reality created in cinema and this reality gains its meaning through spaces. It should be noted one would overlook living spaces if they perceive space merely as a place. In this respect, beyond identifying the space merely as a vacuum, relationships created within the space are undeniably what makes it as a field of meaning creation.

Spaces are fields in which occurs a two-sided interaction between the individual and objects (Çevik&Erdoğdu, 2014: p.124). Spaces and individuals jointly reveal a biography. The comprehension of the diversity of this biography is of great significance for the identification of the diversity of everyday life. (Çevik&Erdoğdu, 2014: p.128). To perceive the space entails understanding of a rather complex web of relationships and certain mechanisms that lead to these relationships. (Berber, 2011: p. 144). Each document, trace or story is attached to the space. This is because experiences do not take place in the vacuum, they correspond to a space. Space precedes our existence in the world; it is social, cultural and historical as well as physical. (Altınoğlu, 2011: p. 5).

The meaning of each space is distinctive mainly due to the relationships created in the space. Apart from its physical existence, the nature of space which comprises humans and their relationships enabled humans to use it as a meaning-laden object through each epoch of history. Cinema uses space within the context of this assumption and creates predetermined meanings through it. Cinema establishes and develops its relationship upon space-human interaction. The preliminary relationship is the one established with the director’s milieu. The director develops a framework to show the audience the deep bond between the fictional characters and spaces s/he creates. The audience may create new meanings in their world by attaching secondary meanings to the director’s fictional spaces because visual perceptions are bound to audience experience and expectations. Therefore, spaces of the play an important role in interpreting the plot.

One needs to mention the term of “place” in order to explain the concept of space. A “place” can only turn into a space by means of humans and their communication. According to Ozturk (2012: pp.13-14), the concept of space ought to be perceived anthologically in order to comprehend its communicational factors. Based on this perspective, the concepts of “place” and “space” show some distinctions. A “place” can be defined as a “space” when there is communication in it. A space becomes one only if it has a bond with communication which essences human experience, other than that, it remains only as a “place”. A “place” may transform into a “space” when humans use it for communication purposes. “Place” is not essentially a communication space, though, the individual possesses this potential upon his/her existence in the world: “These potential, behaviors and conscious actions begin to develop and put into actual use” (Ozturk, 2012: pp.17-18). The individual with his/her communication power possesses the initiative to turn various places, fields into communication spaces in the aforementioned process. (Ozturk, 2012: pp.18).

Panofsky stresses that there is a close relationship between the individual’s body and spaces. The author elaborates how the body and space constitute a cohesion and pose an interaction as follows: