The Expanded Gaze in Contracted Space: Kieślowski and the Matter of Transcendence
Abstract
Drawing on Claude Lévi-Strauss’s thought and the philosophical gaze theories of Jacques Lacan and Keiji Nishitani, Sobchack explores the ways of enlarging a visual field in Krzysztof Kieślowski’ s films, especially in the first part of The Decalogue. Sobchack claims that Kieślowski, given his realism and rationalism in the perception of the world, injects in this film irrational elements that manifest themselves in logical randomness and emotional anxiety. Sobchack analyses how things are given both autonomy and the power of meaning and giving meanings. Sobchack, like Lacan, says that objects in Kieślowski’s movies have their own ominous gaze and visual field with which they negate and replace the human gaze. Man’s gaze becomes decentralized, and a visual field deprived of anthropocentric character. Thereby, we lose power over our gaze, so we are deprived of illusions over full control over our existence and the surrounding world.
- The text is a translation of an article prepared on the basis of a paper delivered at the conference “The Laws, Love, and Luck of Krzysztof Kieslowski” (21-22.04.2001, University of California – Los Angeles).
Keywords:
Krzysztof Kieślowski, gaze, space, transcendenceReferences
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Authors
Vivian Sobchackkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
University of California – Los Angeles United States
Profesor w School of Theatre, Film and Television na Uniwersytecie Kalifornijskim w Los Angeles i na Southern Illinois University w Carbondale (USA). Zajmuje się m.in. teorią mediów w kontekście filozoficznym i fenomenologicznym. Prezes Towarzystwa Badań Filmoznawczych. Wydała m.in. The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience (1992) oraz Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film (1987).
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Copyright (c) 2004 Vivian Sobchack
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