The fixed image in cinema as a potential altered vision strategy
Luca Acquarelli
AN-ICON Studies in Environmental Images May 16, 2022 DOI: 10.54103/ai/15442 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Proposes that the freeze-frame in cinema, where the flow of the moving image stops into a still image, can function as a formal figure of the "altered state." Drawing on film theorists and on films such as Antonioni's Blow Up and Bergman's Persona, the author argues that the hallucinatory effect is not opposed to reality but stands in a dialectic with it. |
Abstract
The article intends to propose some analyses of a possible formal occurrence of “altered states” in cinema: the stopping of the flow of the cinematographic image in a still image. Through some theoretical references (Metz, Bazin, Lyotard, Deleuze, Bellour, Barthes, Montani) I will try to understand if this kind of formal occurrence can be constituted as a figure of the altered state. The relationship between cinema and photography will be particularly explored, starting with films such as Antonioni’s Blow Up and Bergman’s Persona. The hallucinatory effect will thus be discovered not as opposed to that of reality, but a dialectic will be constructed between the two.