Page 177 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 177
memory and identity in film
idea of art has significantly changed under the influence of film. The above
statement implies that there had not been any absolute necessity for film
to become art. We might assert that the unavoidable identifying activity
on the side of perception of a film (which is basically coming to terms with
a look of the other, that is to say, a produced representation by the holder
of a camera with film in it), gave way to such an approach to filmmaking
that involved the aesthetics. As soon as the aesthetic aspects were identi-
fied as such, film could not help but be turned into a form of art. It appears
that within only the last two decades theoreticians and critics have become
aware about the real and far-reaching consequences of this fact. Film, was,
from the point of its conception, a powerful element of so-called mass cul-
ture and it radically changed the whole field of art. It is not just a coin-
cidence that especially traditionalist, essentialist and simply conservative
critics and scholars complain about the situation and state of modern art,
which is so much permeated with the images and impact of film, video and
digital representations. Works of art are in this “cinema of reality” very well
comparable to Deleuze‘s concept of image-mouvement. They do not simply
represent “static” ideas, but they also intervene within a wider reflexive ac-
tivity, which mark contemporary societies. In the light of this, operating
both contemporary art and the traditional art more clearly reveal their nar-
ratives and their context-related meanings, which we can compare to Berg-
son‘s idea of a continuum.
This point brings us to another vast area of highly theoretical discus-
sion, where a connection of film and language has been generated. It is
understood that the concept of memory is closely related to language and
vice versa. Still, the psychological evidence, upon which some recent feature
movies4 built their narratives, clearly corroborate that correlations between
memory and language are both complex and surprising. One can, for in-
stance, become amnesiac, but still not forget language or one can become
very much aphasic but still recognises his environment and people that he
or she knows.
Film theorist and anthropologist Rachel O. Moore found out that the
connection between film and language is a source of another mode of over-
4 Films, dealing with amnesia and related issues are sundry and they could be a nice
theme for a thesis in film theory. Some recent such films as, for example, Nolan‘s Me-
mento (2000), Lynch’s Mulholand Drive (2001) and Gondry‘s Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind (2004), seem to bring some new accents to this theme. We can spec-
ulate that the digital technology and virtual reality are contributing their share to
some restructuring of the memory and identity as concepts and in general.
175
idea of art has significantly changed under the influence of film. The above
statement implies that there had not been any absolute necessity for film
to become art. We might assert that the unavoidable identifying activity
on the side of perception of a film (which is basically coming to terms with
a look of the other, that is to say, a produced representation by the holder
of a camera with film in it), gave way to such an approach to filmmaking
that involved the aesthetics. As soon as the aesthetic aspects were identi-
fied as such, film could not help but be turned into a form of art. It appears
that within only the last two decades theoreticians and critics have become
aware about the real and far-reaching consequences of this fact. Film, was,
from the point of its conception, a powerful element of so-called mass cul-
ture and it radically changed the whole field of art. It is not just a coin-
cidence that especially traditionalist, essentialist and simply conservative
critics and scholars complain about the situation and state of modern art,
which is so much permeated with the images and impact of film, video and
digital representations. Works of art are in this “cinema of reality” very well
comparable to Deleuze‘s concept of image-mouvement. They do not simply
represent “static” ideas, but they also intervene within a wider reflexive ac-
tivity, which mark contemporary societies. In the light of this, operating
both contemporary art and the traditional art more clearly reveal their nar-
ratives and their context-related meanings, which we can compare to Berg-
son‘s idea of a continuum.
This point brings us to another vast area of highly theoretical discus-
sion, where a connection of film and language has been generated. It is
understood that the concept of memory is closely related to language and
vice versa. Still, the psychological evidence, upon which some recent feature
movies4 built their narratives, clearly corroborate that correlations between
memory and language are both complex and surprising. One can, for in-
stance, become amnesiac, but still not forget language or one can become
very much aphasic but still recognises his environment and people that he
or she knows.
Film theorist and anthropologist Rachel O. Moore found out that the
connection between film and language is a source of another mode of over-
4 Films, dealing with amnesia and related issues are sundry and they could be a nice
theme for a thesis in film theory. Some recent such films as, for example, Nolan‘s Me-
mento (2000), Lynch’s Mulholand Drive (2001) and Gondry‘s Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind (2004), seem to bring some new accents to this theme. We can spec-
ulate that the digital technology and virtual reality are contributing their share to
some restructuring of the memory and identity as concepts and in general.
175
