Matter-Reality in Cinema : Realism, Counter-Realism and the Avant-Gardes

Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.20, 2012, pages 187-203

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187-203
Abstract:
The present text investigates the dialectics of reality and materiality in cinematheory and practice. It attempts an epistemological and meta-semioticapproach. Based on Louis Hjelmslev’s model of sign-function, it reformulatesboth the haunting of cinema by reality and the avant-gardes’ focus onmateriality as problematising the relation of cinematic semiosis to the exosemiotic1 realm. It starts by laying down the philosophical background ofthe issues investigated. It then explores the epistemological and ethicopoliticalparameters of the debate over aesthetic realism. Finally, it discussesavant-garde cinema’s techniques of drawing attention to the expressionplane,attempting their provisional systematisation. It suggests that avantgardeinterest in materiality constitutes a stance against the ideology of realism,proposing an alternative relation to reality.
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