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It is a moment of rupture, when we become aware of the potential of film sound to reveal, and break out of, the apparatus to which it has been assigned. This special issue of Alphaville aims to be just one such moment, in which film sound, voice and music are singled out by the analysis in ways that both reveal their profound imbrication in the textual whole and shed light on the apparatus...

Employing with lucidity and conviction a range of methodological approaches, these articles challenge us to rethink texts and genres from the vantage point of spatio-temporal constructs and relationships, showing how, rather than annihilate the principle of identity, the filmic observation of the infinitesimal variations of the space-time continuum has the power to both establish and interrogate it...

The inaugural issue of Alphaville stems thematically from an international Film Studies conference on European Cinema (UCC, May 2010), which addressed the permeability of European spaces from a number of diverse perspectives, showcasing the geopolitical, sociocultural, aesthetic and productive "movement" that was historically and still is at the heart of European cinema...