Yabancı Gözüyle İstanbul’un Sinemasal Mekânları: Hollywood Stüdyo Dönemi, Casus Filmleri ve Turistik Deneyim

Year 2022, Volume: 25 (2) Issue: 50, 475 - 496, 26.09.2022

Sezen Kayhan Ayşegül Kesirli Unur

https://doi.org/10.18691/kulturveiletisim.1102258

Abstract

Şark ve garp arasında bir bağlantı noktası olarak görülen İstanbul, yıllardır yabancı sinemacılara ilham vermektedir. 1930'lardan 1950'lere kadar çekilen Hollywood stüdyo filmleri, İstanbul'u egzotik bir casus şehri olarak resmetmiştir. Bu filmlerin neredeyse tamamı Hollywood’daki stüdyolarda çekilmiş, daha sonra gerçeklik etkisini artırmak için kurguda manzara görüntüleri eklenmiştir. Bu çalışma, İstanbul Görevi (1934), Tehlikenin Ardı (1943), Korku Ülkesine Yolculuk (1945), İstanbul Alevi (1951) ve Ankara Casusu (1952) isimli beş filmi analiz ederek, yabancı film yapımcılarının o dönemde bu filmlerle nasıl bir İstanbul imajı ürettikleri ve daha sonra bu imajın nasıl kalıcı hale geldiğini keşfetmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Oryantalist imgelerin kullanıldığı bu seçilmiş filmler, izleyicilere sanal bir turistik deneyim sunmaktadır. Turistlerin kendileri için sahnelenen kültürel otantikliğe kapılmalarına benzer şekilde, sinema da izleyicilere “uzaktan mekâna çekilme” tecrübesi sunmaktadır (Corbin 2014). Bu filmlerde yer alan İstanbul imajı yıllar içinde, uluslararası egemen ideolojik görüşlere bağlı olarak belirli ölçüde değişse de, 1930’ların erken dönem casus filmlerindeki İstanbul'un ikonik görüntüleri, günümüzde Batılı izleyiciye tanıdık bir turistik zevk sunmak için kullanılmaya devam edilmektedir.

Keywords

Sinemasal şehir, casus filmi, İstanbul, Hollywood stüdyo dönemi, Oryantalizm.

Cinematic Spaces of Istanbul Through the Foreign Lens: Hollywood Studio Era, Spy Films and Touristic Experience

Abstract

As a connecting point between the Orient and the Occident, the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul has inspired foreign filmmakers for decades. Hollywood studio films from the 1930s to the 1950s fabricated the image of Istanbul as an exotic city of espionage. These films were produced in Hollywood studios which later added landscape stock footage during editing. With analyzing five films: Stamboul Quest (1934), Background to Danger (1943), Journey into the Fear (1945), Flame of Stamboul (1951), and 5 Fingers (1952), this study intends to show how foreign filmmakers created the image of Istanbul in Hollywood studio era and continued to use the same images later in films produced on location. Selected films which use Orientalist imagery offer the spectators a virtual touristic experience. Similar to the immersion of the tourists within the cultural authenticity that is staged and performed for them, cinema can offer a “distant immersion” for the spectators (Corbin, 2014). Although the city’s representation transformed to a certain degree depending on the dominant ideological views of the international setting, the iconic images of Istanbul in early spy films from the 1930s continue to appear in contemporary productions of the genre in an attempt to offer a familiar pleasure in a new context.

Keywords

Cinematic city, spy film, Istanbul, Hollywood studio era, Orientalism.

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