Abstract
This thesis is divided in three parts that describe an theoretical itinerary: at first it is proposed a relation between film and historiography, then it is addressed the specificities of reenacting past events in a film, and finally, historical fictions that reveal distinct cinematic forms of history are analyzed. In the first chapter historiographical practices are compared with the making of an historical fiction, measuring film’s capacity to transmit knowledge about the past. Modes of visibility of the past are investigated in the second chapter, departing from the
question: what is the “real” of historical fiction? The focus is the problem of reenacting the past and portraying an historical event within a fictional narrative. The third chapter presents four trends of cinematic forms of history, in films of Eric Rohmer, Clint Eastwood, Roberto Rossellini, and Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub
