The diluted border. Ephemeral architecture in film

Abstract

The concept of the ephemeral is very broad. We associate it with the brief, the perishable, the fleeting. But this is not always the case. The temporal might also sometimes be associated with permanence, stability, transformation or variety. Applied to architecture, it could be dynamic, variable and flexible, and if we extend it to the architecture used in films we can identify architectural sets that can be differentiated by their temporal dimension. Sets built to disappear, although some prove quite durable and are re-used again and again, while others leave a trail of reactions in their wake that make their fleeting nature especially purposeful. This article studies this difference, with the ephemeral as protagonist, not only through its architectures, but also through its space, as an enveloping element that configures the cinematographic reality.