12 - The Ever-Tested Limit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2020
Summary
Abstract
This essay explores the notion of cinematic apparition: those moments or sequences in a film that seem to blur the line completely between objective representation and the inner subjectivity of either fictional characters or our own, viewing selves. Setting out from the inspiring example of Surrealist filmmakers and theorists in the 1920s and beyond, the essay examines various types of narrative structures and stylistic approaches that favour and prepare for the emergence of mind-boggling apparitions of various sorts. In this way, crucial links are made between popular horror or thriller genres, and radical, avant-garde experimentation. Films by Brian De Palma, Philippe Garrel, Jean Vigo and Agnès Varda are discussed, and theorists considered include Daniel Percheron, Jacques Brunius and Ronnie Scheib.
Keywords: Apparition, dream, narrative, memory, mental imagery
Beguiling too it was to him who struggled in the grip of these sights and sounds, shamelessly awaiting the coming feast and the uttermost surrender.
– Thomas Mann, Death in VeniceThe Night Shift
92 minutes into Philippe Garrel's ELLE A PASSÉ TANT D’HEURES SOUS LES SUNLIGHTS … (1985) – one of his least seen and most mysterious films – the camera focuses closely on Marie (Mireille Perrier), from the back, as she starts her car and begins to pilot it through Paris traffic. The shot uses only available, natural light (a sign of Garrel's meager budget as well as his hard-edge aesthetic), so the image is mostly dark; additionally, a shallow focus lens blurs the background beyond the car windows. The scene begins in silence, but a rendition by Nico and the Blue Orchids of Lou Reed's classic “All Tomorrow’s Parties” unfussily glides in via a quick fade-up at the ten-second mark.
In its own, modest way, the scene is a kinetic carnival: beyond the play of light from outside and the jiggly camera motion created by the car, there are also sudden cuts, split-seconds of blackness, intrusions of other images caught (and not subsequently discarded) as the cinematographer's finger eased on and off the button, shot-end flares, and a glimpse of clapboard notation. Marie eventually stops the car, fidgets around for a while, and then – seen in the blurry background of the same set-up, decorated and smudged by raindrops on the window – she greets her guy, Gracq (Lou Castel). Over two minutes have already passed in this segment, and Nico has sung two verses.
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- Information
- Mysteries of CinemaReflections on Film Theory, History and Culture 1982–2016, pp. 193 - 222Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018