Dead or Alive? Living Oeuvres and Tableaux Vivants: Pictorial Stillness and Arrested Motion as Vehicles for Sculptural Subtexts in Cinema
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51427/com.est.2024.03.02.0008Palavras-chave:
Emma Hamilton, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Poses plastiques, Silent cinema, TheatricalityResumo
In its beginning, cinema drew heavily from theatrical elements, infusing static images with life through early film techniques. Early cinema, particularly during the turn of the twentieth century, displayed an affinity for dramatizing inert figures — statues and portraits — often evoking Greco-Roman themes, a method prominently — though not exclusively — used by Georges Méliès. Méliès’ innovations reflect a lineage traceable to the tableau vivant, a sophisticated performance art which imitated the poses of painting and sculpture, prevalent amongst the eighteenth and nineteenth century Western aristocracy. Despite a decrease in popularity halfway through the nineteenth century, the tableau vivant experienced a resurgence within the burgeoning film industry. This paper seeks to unearth and clarify a largely ignored yet poignant aesthetic practice that has sporadically punctuated film history. Through the analysis of works by a cadre of distinguished filmmakers, including Lowell Sherman, Alain Resnais, and Bernardo Bertolucci, this paper aims to highlight this tradition’s kinetic impression upon the themes of life and death.
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