The deserts of the western part of the United States form the quintessential American landscape. The challenge of overcoming their hostile nature, their symbolic status as the dividing line between civilisation and wilderness and the spiritual inspiration inherent in the desire to explore beyond the Frontier – together these have forged the identity of a nation. And these same landscapes both have also forged a unique cinematic imagery. For the American hero to walk the desert is to rekindle the pioneer experience but also to confront iconic images and proceed to a deeper introspection, at the risk of wandering in a material and mental maze.
Christophe Beney has a Ph.D. in cinema from the Jules Verne University of Picardy. He won a best thesis in social sciences prize for his work dedicated to the emergence of the desert in American contemporary cinema. Co-founder of Accreds.fr, a film festival webzine, and a former editor for Les Cahiers du Cinéma, he has recently published his first book, La Démocratie est un art martial.