Journal Article

Le climat dans les films catastrophe, dystopiques et post-apocalyptiques

Pohl, Benjamin, Lallement, Brice, Jacob-Rousseau, Nicolas, Pouzet, Pierre, Planchon, Olivier

2022

Overview

Since the early 2000s, climate-pessimism has become a very popular film subject, reflecting some of the anxieties of today’s society. Thus disaster, dystopian and post-apocalyptic films are not only entertainment and manifestations of certain fashion effects, they are also a reflection of the scientific advances of their time. In this article, 55 films were selected based on the different representations of the climate and weather conditions they offer. The climate is presented and perceived very differently from one film to another. Although climate change has often become a privileged context in the scenarios of recent films, it is not necessarily put forward compared to other large-scale threats that humanity could face. Hostile weather and climate conditions provide an adequate atmosphere that points out the suffering conditions of the protagonists. The analysis of weather-climate phenomena highlights certain attempts to refer to recognized scientific work and results, if possible, in connection with phenomena with spectacular and catastrophic impacts, which allows to send warning messages to the spectators. Many films also tend to place the Earth into aridity. Beyond the more or less reliable scientific significance of a possible aridification according to the scenario concerned, the aesthetics of desert environments (sand-invaded cities, dust storms) is undoubtedly a deliberately desired effect in this category of films.

• Publisher: EDP Sciences
• Subject: Catastrophes / Genre