Roads to the Self: Unearthing the Foundations of the Road Movie

This study explores ten “road movies” made between 1945 and 2005 chosen as exemplary in global cinema. The films originated in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Morocco and France. The project is based on library research and film viewing and uses eclectic methods and theories embracing mainly phenomenological and humanistic approaches. This thesis approaches the film narratives in selected “road movies” as “aesthetic artifacts.” The filmmakers who created these road movies use the “bricolage” available to them and which resonates with their film audiences to assemble their own mythical worlds and invite us into them. The research describes the stages of the journeys of self-discovery and the ways that film techniques reveal the psychological journeys taken by the key characters.