Abstract

This article is about the multimedia CD-ROM, "Moving History", a practical and methodological experiment produced at the European University Institute in Florence, in 2003. "Moving History" has two parts. The first analyses the film "La dame de Malacca" (France, 1937) and its relevance as a historical source; examines the relationship between the film and the book from which it is taken; reconstructs the cast; and investigates the reception of the film in France. This written text is interconnected with images from magazines, from other films and from a documentary. The second part - entitled 'Montages' - prioritizes the visual and is based on images chosen from the film and organized around three main themes: the possibility of love between 'races' ('Couple'); conflicts such as those between generations, 'races' and gender ('Differences'); and the use of landscape as signifier of the 'Orient' in the imagery of Europeans ('Landscape'). We have chosen to write this article in the format of a montage to reflect the individual contributions and competences that came together in the experiment of making the CD ROM. The following three sections are written respectively by Luisa Passerini, Enrica Capussotti, and Giuseppe Lauricella.