The Viewer's Embodiment into Cinematic Space. Notes on a Space-Image Cinema (original) (raw)

2018, Filipa Rosario & Ivan Villarmea (eds.), New Approaches to Cinematic Space, Routledge

This chapter is an invitation to consider cinematic space through a new analytical view – which actually is not only a ‘view’, but a carnal perception that deeply implies the spectator’s body. The focus of this paper is a notion I call the "space-image" (Gaudin, 2015), which echoes Gilles Deleuze’s well-known concepts “movement-image” and “time-image” (Deleuze, 1983, 1985). As the movement-image and the time-image, the space-image refers to a space that is not just a content or background of the image, but is at the same time a major philosophical issue and a fundamental plastic material of cinema. This concept is useful to study the poetics of space in the works of a few contemporary auteur filmmakers, such as Gus Van Sant, Jia Zhang-ke or Philippe Grandrieux, whose films call for a new paradigm of cinematic space. The space-image highlights the fact that before showing and staging an imaginary space "behind the screen", every film is first a spatial phenomenon in itself. Thus, space should also be considered as a primary plastic power inscribed within the moving image. This phenomenological approach is substantially different from classical approaches to space in film analysis.

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact