Singapore: A Cinematic Portrait
Raphaël Millet
Paperback, 530 pages
9789819447091
In this richly illustrated account, drawing on rare archival material, rigorous research and decades of critical engagement, Raphaël Millet traces the many ways cinema has seen, framed and imagined Singapore – from the earliest colonial newsreels to the evolving forms of image-making in the digital age. Spanning 125 years (1900-2025), the book charts the island's journey on screen, from its days as a bustling imperial entrepôt to its emergence as a confident, modern, cosmopolitan city-state.
Across this long arc of cinematic history, Singapore merges not merely as a backdrop of film location, but as a protagonist in its own right - its rising skyline, its languages intermingling, its people appearing and reappearing in ever-changing constellations before the cinema. Whether refracted through the gaze of foreign productions or shaped from within by local filmmakers, each image contributes to a composite portrait of a nation in motion.
At once a work of history and a visual journey, Singapore: A Cinematic Portrait is enriched with film posters, handbills and photographs that evoke memory while grounding the narrative in place and time. It offers a window onto the past and holds a mirror to the present, opening up ways of seeing how cinema documents and reimagines a nation.
Contents
1 Early Cinema
2 The Inter-War Years
3 Cinema in Times of War
4 The Post-war Cinematic Awakening
5 The Grand Studio Era: Filming Nusantara
6 The Grand Studio Era: Filming Nanyang
7 The Grand Studio Era: Singapore's Cinematic Malayan Touch
8 1960 Singapore Through the Indian Lens
9 Cold War Singapore Through the Western Lens
10 A Cinematic Transition Looking for Direction
11 Melancholia Singapura
12 Nostalgia Singapura
13 Filming the Singapore Dream
14 Filming the Singapore Story
About the author
Raphaël Millet is a film scholar, writer, director and producer based between France and Singapore since 2002. Trained in political science and film studies in Paris, he has taught cinema, worked with France Télévisions and the French National Centre of Cinema (CNC), and written widely on European, Middle Eastern and Asian cinemas.
A specialist on Singapore cinema, he is the author of Le Cinéma de Singapour (2003) and Singapore Cinema (2006), and a contributor to Positif, Trafic, Les Cahiers du cinéma and BiblioAsia. In 2005, he co-created Screen Singapore, the first major retrospective of the nation’s cinema, and has advised institutions including the Centre Pompidou.
As a documentary filmmaker, his work explores cinema history and culture. His Singapore-related films—Gaston Méliès and His Wandering Star Film Company, Chaplin in Bali and The Capitol of Singapore—are held in the Asian Film Archive.