A Kiss of Death: Off Screen Space in the Films of Michael Haneke, Alexander Sokurov, and Andrzej Wajda
Abstract
The essay introduces off screen space as a separate aesthetic category which performs different functions in the films of Michael Haneke, Andrzej Wajda, and Alexander Sokurov. All three film-makers direct the attention of spectators to off screen spaces in different ways and in different diegetic contexts. Haneke directs the spectators’ attention off screen when he hides scenes of extreme violence to the audience. Wajda directs the spectators off screen in the scenes of reflection and sadness while Alexander Sokurov redirects the spectators off screen when he is unwilling to show certain facts or states of mind. Each of them is effective and masterful in creating “the unthought” and convincingly using “off screen” space as “the uncanny” in Haneke, “the inexpressible” melancholia and sadness in Wajda, and the unsaid and ahistorical in Sokurov. The author chooses only some films of the above mentioned directors to analyze this phenomenon in detail. She concludes her essay with a statement that the real inhabitant of the off screen space is death present in the films of all three filmmakers.
Keywords:
off screen space, Michael Haneke, Andrzej Wajda, Alexander SokurovReferences
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Authors
Janina Falkowskakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
University of Western Ontario Canada
Wykłada zagadnienia kina z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej i Zachodniej na Wydziale Filmoznawstwa University of Western Ontario (Kanada). Autorka licznych publikacji na temat kina polskiego oraz kina Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. Wydała książki: The Political Films of Andrzej Wajda. Dialogism in „Man of Marble”, „Man of Iron” and „Danton” (1996), Andrzej Wajda: History, Politics and Nostalgia in Polish Cinema (2007). Redagowała antologię National Cinemas in Postwar East-Central Europe (wydanie specjalne „Canadian Slavonic Papers” 2000, t. XLII, nr 1-2) i wspólnie z Markiem Haltofem zbiór The New Polish Cinema (2003). Ponadto zajmuje się twórczością Michaela Hanekego. W ostatnich latach skupia uwagę na projekcie badawczym poświęconym małym kinematografiom europejskim i związaną z tym zagadnieniem serią międzynarodowych konferencji naukowych.
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Copyright (c) 2014 Janina Falkowska
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