Istanbul, Not Constantinople

Cinema and modern city are born in the same period of time and have developed concurrently. They have also interacted and transformed each other. Some cities of the world are referred as ‘cinematic cities’ as a consequence of this representational relationship. Cinema utilizes designerly tools for both the representation and the construction of cinematic reality. Representation of the city in cinema is no exception. For the representation of cities like New York and Berlin, directors make use of designerly tools such as color, lighting and sound to design and construct the visuality of films. In this book, Istanbul is studied in terms of the representational relationship between cinema and the city. The concept of cinematic representation is discussed and cinematic cities are analyzed, also the representation of Istanbul in both Turkish and American cinema is portrayed. Two American films are taken as case study. Designerly tools and their purpose for the representation of Istanbul are discussed through Jules Dassin’s Topkapi (1964) and Alan Parker’s Midnight Express (1978) to put Istanbul on the place it deserves together with the other cinematic cities.