Tuberculosis in Cinematic Narratives: Architectural Spaces and Socio-Spatial Constructs

Abstract

Pulmonary tuberculosis has been prominent in representations of illness in theater and cinema since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Tuberculosis has served as a convenient vehicle for “romantic storytelling,” and the sanatorium as an ideal film set, one whose bucolic setting evokes in the audience a sense of escaping into nature. Focusing on three films—Una Breve Vacanza (A Brief Vacation, Vittorio De Sica, 1973), Učitel Tance (The Dance Teacher, Jaromil Jireš, 1995), and Kelebeğin Rüyası (A Butterfly’s Dream, Yılmaz Erdoğan, 2013)—this study explores the medico-social reflections of tuberculosis and those aspects of the disease that make it such a favorite of cinema, including “easy acting,” “romantic storytelling,” and “visual and spatial aesthetics.” The three films examined here utilize sanatorium facilities’ venues, spaces, and architecture to create visually appealing and spatially engaging aesthetics. These films, all of which take place in the mid-twentieth century, are selected to include a diverse range of sanatorium venues and different typologies of sanatorium architecture. These films not only convey information about tuberculosis and three different global sanatorium cases but also serve as valuable archival documents that offer insights into the socio-spatiality of the disease in architecture and cinema.