Subjective Cameras Locked-In and Out-of-Body

Abstract

Abstract In this essay, I examine conceptual metaphors of the camera eye as figurations of the cinematic dispositif that reflect on sensory and symbolic aspects of cinema. Since camera-eye metaphors often hypothesize between medial, formal and experiential dimensions of film, they are particularly insightful for studying embodied conceptualizations of cinema. Drawing on insights from phenomenology and cognitive semiotics, I will investigate how filmic camera-eye metaphors blend sensory knowing with conceptual knowledge structures. My case studies are two recent explorations of camera-eye vision that offer a self-reflexive commentary on the history of cinema: Julian Schnabel’s Le Scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, 2007) and Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void (2009). Both films celebrate the deep-seated metaphorical base of cinema as a form of vicarious experience and its constructive power to create alternative and abstract models of reality. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly presents the experience of locked-in syndrome through a pastiche of historical film styles. Enter the Void renders the psychedelic state of the protagonist’s near death experience through a series of camera loops that draw on new imaging technologies. I will discuss these films as critical responses to traditional notions of filmic storytelling that extend the narrative scope by including sub-personal dimensions of experience. Resume Le present article examine les metaphores conceptuelles de l'oeil-camera en tant que figurations du dispositif cinematographique qui reflechissent au sujet des aspects sensorielles et symboliques du cinema. Puisque les metaphores relatives a l'oeil-camera formulent souvent des hypotheses concernant le medium, la forme ou l'experience du film, elles sont particulierement interessantes pour etudier des conceptualisations incarnes du cinema. En s'appuyant sur la phenomenologie et la semiotique cognitive, l'auteur analyse comment les metaphores relatives a l'oeil-camera combinent le savoir sensoriel avec des structures conceptuelles de connaissance. Deux etudes de cas concernant des explorations recentes de la vision relative a l'oeil-camera offrent une analyse reflexive concernant l'histoire du cinema : Le Scaphandre et le papillon (Julian Schnabel, 2007) et Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009). Les deux films glorifient la base profondement metaphorique du IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE Vol. 15, No. 1 (2014) 72 cinema comme forme d'experience deleguee et son pouvoir constructif pour creer des modeles de la realite alternatives et abstraites. Le Scaphandre et le papillon presente l'experience du « locked-in syndrome » au travers d'une pastiche de styles cinematographiques historiques. Enter the Void concretise l'etat psychedelique de l'experience « near death » du protagoniste au travers une serie de mouvements de camera basee sur de nouvelles technologies d'image. L'auteur analyse ces films comme des reponses critiques aux notions classiques de narration filmique qui augmentent la portee narrative en incluant des dimensions sous-personnelles de l'experience.