East is East? The Sense of Place in David Lean’s A Passage to India (1984)
Résumé
Lean's name is immediately associated with Lawrence of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago while his last film, A Passage to India, is not as celebrated outside Britain. Set during the British Raj, its story highlights the misunderstandings between two cultures; interestingly, the Britons are not the only ones to be out of place in the subcontinent, and Indians too may no longer feel at home. Although both communities sometimes try to connect, it seems they are doomed to failure by the natural forces around themas the emphasis on the landscapes and water element in day or night scenes tends to prove. Through an analysis of the film, its dialogues and the different types of shots used, this case study proposes to explore the representation of space and place in relation to questions of otherness, identity, sexuality and ethnicityan Indian doctor being tried for attempted rape of an English girl-, but also to the question of soundscapesthe echo, whether actual or in the heroine's head, being a central motif closely linked with forgiveness and the characters' final redemption and sense of belonging.
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