The Power of Technique and the Absence of Man in a Photographic Picture

The text problematizes the connection between art and the power of technology. The question arises: how can photography as an art, created as a technical invention, respond to the challenges of technical power, which manifests itself as an unconditional desire for domination that knows no limits? The esthetician from Sarajevo, Sadudin Musabegović, understood the very power of photographic representation precisely through the figures of division: mimesis - poiesis - techne. Martin Heidegger's opinion on technique is connected with the figure offered by Musabegović. Sadudin Musabegović's aesthetic thought provides possible answers to the question: how is a man present in photography itself when the famous film critic Andre Bazin said that photography is the only art we enjoy because of an absence of a human? And what role does art play in overcoming the crisis established by technology in the modern world? In the 'age of mass reproduction', art itself has lost its aura, as Walter Benjamin states, and Musabegović adds that even the photographed being has lost its aura. The problem of losing the aura can also be understood as a new beginning, as a ‘new source’ for art itself. But for the source itself, Musabegović says that he finds himself in the flow, that he is always outside himself, he is in the intertwining, permeation that manifests itself in a dynamic, reversible, and moving figure: mimetic activity – making techne – productive poiesis. This text aims not only to explain the meaning of this figure, which Musabegović established originally within aesthetics, and especially in the field of photography and film, but also to analyze its meaning in the context of unmasking the logic of modern technical control, which marked a modern way of living, thinking, and perceiving the world.

Crossing Borders in Film Theory and Adaptation Studies

The history of film theory is full of what we might call migrating concepts. From the Russian Formalists which, in their Poetica Kino (Poetics of cinema) adapt concepts initially created as part of literary theory (fabula vs. syuzhet, film as language, cine-stylistics) to David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson and their formalist inspired approach to film studies, from André Bazin and his theory of realism, inspired by phenomenological concepts, the history of film theory can be thought of as a genealogy of crossing borders. The circulation of concepts from literary theory to film theory is also quite astonishing in the theory of adaptation. In the study of the adaptation of literary works for cinema, the travel of concepts (the crossing of borders) can be observed and analysed especially in narrative theory and adaption theory.

La pantalla videoescénica: interfaz entre presencia y huella

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo determinar las relaciones que se establecen entre presencia e imagen audiovisual en la construcción de un producto híbrido, la obra videoescénica. A través de un diseño metodológico que tiene en cuenta planteamientos de la fenomenología audiovisual de André Bazin y de la teoría del teatro, se llega a la conclusión de que la pantalla funciona como interfaz que establece la unidad de sentido entre cuerpo del actor y su imagen especular y posibilita la expansión figurativa de personajes, acciones, espacio y tiempo basada en la fragmentación y la flexibilidad de la imagen audiovisual.

“To Believe in an Image (Again)”

In screen studies and photography studies, the name of the acclaimed film theorist and critic André Bazin is frequently invoked by scholars seeking to defend the import of analogue media on ontological grounds by citing photography's privileged connection to the real. This article seeks to unsettle Bazin's reputation as the patron saint of analogue recording by exploring the ontological implications of the concept of sense in Bazin's writings on neorealism. Placing Bazin's writings into dialogue with a selection of critiques that find the digital image to be lacking in historicity, negativity, and presence, and flag its potentially authoritarian impulses, this essay seeks to reframe Bazin's ontological project as a question of cinema's sense (rather than its essence) to mobilize a different set of conclusions that may in fact prove to restore faith in the digital image and its rapport with the real. By maintaining that what is often treated as a purely technological problem also harbors aesthetics implications, this article confronts the manifest skepticism that has pervaded the discourse around the digital since the 1990s, seeking an alternative outlook in Jean-Luc Nancy's work on sense, an ontological concept that evidences the political potentials (or potential politics) of Bazin's predilection for images, which are said to ameliorate our love for reality by transmitting the excessive sense of the world in its ambiguity, creativity, and unpredictability.

On the Margin of ”Satantango”. Some Remarks on Slow Cinema

Athough Satantango by Bela Tarr is usually regarded as a perfect representative of slow cinema and certainly deserves this reputation, it is worth remembering that it shares some features with other currents of modern cinema. Its networkish structure and unreliable narration place it close to puzzle films; its close affinity with the Krasznahorkai novel, on which it is based, makes it a form of impure – that is – hybrid cinema; due to an accumulation of evil deeds, tragic and sensational events, it resembles films of action. But, first of all, it is a paramount example of slow cinema, and as such it enables one to grasp the essential features of this genre. According to certain views, often built on the foundation of Andre Bazin theory, slow cinema imitates natural human perception and therefore is inherently realistic. This is not true, though. Instead of a reality effect, slow cinema produces rather a verfremdung effect, which in turn enhances the big potential of slow cinema in inducing transcendental or religious states in a viewer’s mind. Satantango explores this potential, drawing on the religious connotations of Krasznahorkai novel.

Nelson Rodrigues, da literatura para o cinema: uma análise sobre a adaptação audiovisual do romance "O casamento"

O romance O casamento (1966), de Nelson Rodrigues, conta as vinte e quatro horas que antecedem o casamento de Glorinha – filha caçula de Sabino. Este é surpreendido por seu amigo, Dr. Camarinha, com a notícia de que o noivo de Glorinha foi visto beijando outro homem na boca. A partir de então, descortinam-se os segredos mais recônditos da família de Sabino – que insistia em viver das aparências. Em 1975, Arnaldo Jabor decide fazer a adaptação dessa obra para o cinema. O presente estudo analisa em que medida Jabor realiza essa adaptação, buscando mostrar as estratégias empregadas por Jabor na tentativa de transpor a linguagem literária para o audiovisual. André Bazin, Robert Stam e Ismail Xavier são alguns dos teóricos que servirão de base para este estudo.

A Filmmaker in His Library

In his 1952 essay “For an Impure Cinema: In Defense of Adaptation,” André Bazin defended cinema’s “impurity” as a necessary element in the medium’s formal evolution and technical development. The Italian writer, filmmaker, and essayist Pier Paolo Pasolini based his own artistic method on the tension among the distinct artistic languages that characterizes Bazin’s “impure cinema,” thereby situating his work in his “library-laboratory,” a space where ideas circulate beyond their disciplinary fields. In keeping with Bazin’s essay, this article illuminates how Pasolini turned his library into a toolbox and blurred the boundaries between mediums of creation and categories of theoretical thought.

Os signos do realismo: da literatura ao cinema, de Flaubert às imagens digitais

Este trabalho propõe uma reflexão teórica sobre o conceito de realismo na literatura e no cinema, estabelecendo conexões entre os dois campos artísticos. Para isso, resgata formulações teóricas clássicas e propõe sua revisão a partir da leitura de pensadores contemporâneos, apontando para o cenário atual de crise da representação nas artes. Para Roland Barthes, a estética do romance realista encarnaria um novo verossímil, fruto de uma fusão entre o referente e o significante, de modo a produzir um “efeito do real”. Para André Bazin, a imagem cinematográfica seria capaz de operar a “epifania do real”, levando o desejo de representação realista a seu limite. As posições destes autores foram bastante criticadas por teóricos como Rancière, Grodal e Carroll, que apontaram suas deficiências e incompletudes. Para Wood, o realismo é um parâmetro avaliativo para toda arte narrativa, que se constrói a partir de uma dinâmica de aproximação e afastamento com a realidade. No cenário atual, o problema da representação coloca em xeque o valor de verdade das formas de representação, o que se materializa no sentimento de ceticismo exacerbado que caracteriza o contexto da pós-verdade. As imagens cinematográficas perderam seu estatuto de veridicidade material, uma vez que o filme não tem mais um suporte físico, enquanto a literatura mistura fato e ficção em exercícios de autoficção. Qual seria a estética realista possível para nosso tempo?