Substance, Which Means Nothing: On the Creation of Impossible Events in Robert Bresson’s “L’argent”
Abstract
One of the most rooted beliefs about Robert Bresson’s works is that what the French director shows on the screen are only fragments, scraps of reality, to which he does not attempt to give an overall form. Therefore, the director seems to conceal the most significant events in the plot, or to visualize the adjacent spaces in relation to those in which something important is just taking place. This is the reason why he is considered to use frequently the narrational ellipses and metonymies. On the contrary, the author of the article tries to prove that the category of ellipsis and metonymy does not apply to the most mysterious places of the last work by Bresson, L’Argent (1983), and – to some extent – to his earlier films as well. Better results in explaining these places are to be found in the Lacanian philosophy of the Absent. When used with care, the tools of the Lacanian psychoanalysis (filtered through some filmic ideas by Slavoj Žižek) lead to unexpected conclusions which clash with previous conclusions concerning Bresson’s materialism and transcendentalism.
Keywords:
Robert Bresson, Slavoj Žižek, Jacques LacanReferences
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Authors
Andrzej Zalewskikwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jan Dlugosz Academy in Czestochowa Poland
Prof. zw. w Instytucie Filozofii, Socjologii i Psychologii Akademii im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie. Z wykształcenia filozof i filmoznawca; w przeszłości pracował w Katedrze Mediów i Kultury Audiowizualnej Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. Łączy problematykę filmową z estetyką filmu i filozofią. W zakresie filmoznawstwa wydał m.in. książki Strategiczna dezorientacja. Perypetie rozumu w fabularnym filmie postmodernistycznym (1998) oraz Film i nie tylko. Kognitywizm, emocje, reality show (2004). Ostatnie jego teksty na temat filmu pochodzą z tomów zbiorowych Pamięć kina (2013) i Sacrum w kinie: dekadę później (2013) oraz periodyku „Filozofia. Prace Naukowe Akademii im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie” (2014-2015).
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