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by Maria Ogécia Drigo
This paper presents results of the research, which subject is the relationship between cinematographic images and thought, that has been developed with support from São Paulo State Foundation for Research Support (FAPESP). It aims to suggest some methodological strategies for film analysis, from the concept of image-affection, one of the three modalities of movement-image, Gilles Deleuze’s concept introduced in the book
Cinema 1 The Movement-Image, at the confluence of Charles Sanders Peirce’s theories. Therefore, one presents reflections on film analysis, about movement-image and its three divisions: perception-image, action-image, and affection-image. Following, one analyzes sequences of images in the film The Revenant and suggests some strategies for analyzing moving images. The relevance of such reflections is to show that film analysis is likely to go beyond both text and narrational or psychoanalytic analysis.
Key words: Deleuze/Peirce. Cinematographic image. Thought. Movement-image. Affection-image.
Introduction
This paper, that presents result of the research about the relation between thought and cinematographic images, aims to suggest strategies for film analysis, focusing the concept of affection-image, one of the three modes of movement-image, a concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and presented in the book Cinema 1 The movement-image, at the confluence with Peirce’s theories, mainly phenomenology and sign taxonomy.
To achieve this goal one sets out with some general aspects of both theories and procedures for film analysis; following, one addresses the concept of movement-image with an emphasis on the affection-image and availing oneself of this concept one analyzes sequences of images in the film The Revenant. From such analysis, one suggests strategies for analyzing moving images. In this paper, one takes some images from two long takes of the referred film.
The Revenant is a story with Hugh Glass, legendary character associated to The
United States’ expansion wars, still in the XIX century. This film is based on Michael Punke’s The Revenant, which was published in 2002.
In the film, the character takes part in a group of fur hunters of Fort Kiowa, located near the Missouri River, presently South Dakota, which was commanded by Captain Andrew Henry. As they return from the last hunt, the group led by Henry is attacked by the Indians Arikara, whose target was their fur stock. The survivors manage to flee by boat and they take some of the fur loads. However, Glass warns the Captain that he should abandon the boat to avoid being ambushed by Indians. One of them, Fitzgerald disapproves the idea. Once in land, the group decides to hide their remaining stock and walk aside Arikara’s territory, in order to avoid being attacked again. They get rid of Indians, but, one day in the morning, Hugh Glass is attacked by a female bear and gets seriously injured. Captain Henry offers a reward to anyone who is willing to carry Glass back to the Fort. Two of them decide to lag behind in order to carry him: his son Hawk, and Fitzgerald, who accepted the task because the other two ones promised to give their part in the reward to the third one who agreed to stay. However, the return was not exactly the way they had wished. Glass is abandoned and even injured he manages to make an epic regress journey. Struggling to survive, faces a brutal winter, Glass has to bear unimaginable pain, as well as Fitzgerald disloyalty. He is compelled by both his willpower and the remembrance of his family, who no longer exists.
The proliferation of images – visual representations – in different media, might justify the importance of this research, since such images have increasingly become constituters of research corpus in the most different sciences, mainly communication. Within the scope of this research, the term visual representation, according to Santaella (2011), refers to painting, illustration, photograph and cinematographic, televised and infographic image.
The understanding the relation between image and thought, in others words, to show how thought is likely to flow along with moving images, may help to understand the interpreter’s cognition when he is involved in media processes and products.
Following, some reflections on film analysis.