A Theory of Cinematic Selfhood & Practices of Neoliberal Portraiture
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Cinema of the Self: A Theory of Cinematic Selfhood & Practices of Neoliberal Portraiture Milosz Paul Rosinski Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge June 2017 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. The dissertation is formatted in accordance to the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) style. This dissertation does not exceed the word limit of 80,000 words (as specified by the Modern and Medieval Languages Degree Committee). Summary This thesis examines the philosophical notion of selfhood in visual representation. I introduce the self as a modern and postmodern concept and argue that there is a loss of selfhood in contemporary culture. Via Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Gerhard Richter and the method of deconstruction of language, I theorise selfhood through the figurative and literal analysis of duration, the frame, and the mirror. In this approach, selfhood is understood as aesthetic-ontological relation and construction based on specific techniques of the self. In the first part of the study, I argue for a presentational rather than representational perspective concerning selfhood by translating the photograph Self in the Mirror (1964), the painting Las Meninas (1656), and the video Cornered (1988), into my conception of a cinematic theory of selfhood. Based on the presentation of selfhood in those works, the viewer establishes a cinematic relation to the visual self that extends and transgresses the boundaries of inside and outside, presence and absence, and here and there. In the second part, I interpret epistemic scenes of cinematic works as durational scenes in which selfhood is exposed with respect to the forces of time and space. My close readings of epistemic scenes of the films The Congress (2013), and Boyhood (2014) propose that cinema is a philosophical mirror collecting loss of selfhood over time for the viewer. Further, the cinematic concert A Trip to Japan, Revisited (2013), and the hyper-film Cool World (1992) disperse a spatial sense of selfhood for the viewer. In the third part, I examine moments of selfhood and the forces of death, survival, and love in the practice of contemporary cinematic portraiture in Joshua Oppenheimer’s, Michael Glawogger’s, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ work. While the force of death is interpreted in the portrait of perpetrators in The Act of Killing (2013), and The Look of Silence (2014), the force of survival in the longing for life is analysed in Megacities (1998), Workingman’s death (2005), and Whores’ Glory (2011). Lastly, Dogtooth (2009), Alps (2011), and The Lobster (2015) present the contemporary human condition as a lost intuition of relationality epitomised in love. Contents List of illustrations i Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 SECTION I. Towards a Theory of the Cinematic Self 18 Chapter 1: Framing the Self in Photography 20 Chapter 2: The Self and the Mirror – Self in the Mirror 28 Chapter 3: From the Mirror to the Canvas – Las Meninas 47 Chapter 4: Video – The Collection of Self in Immersion 55 Chapter 5: Cornered – Confronting the Other/Self on Screen 66 SECTION II. The Cinematic Self: Selfhood as Collection and 76 Dispersion Chapter 6: Copying Yourself / Selling Inside Out – The 83 Congress Chapter 7: A Total Collection of a Self – Robin Wright in the 92 Light Stage Chapter 8: The World as Vertical Panorama – Robin Wright’s 104 Loss in Total Self-Collection Chapter 9: Boyhood – Continuous Self-Embalmment 125 Chapter 10: Collecting Crystallisation – Mason’s Self in 137 Temporal Relations Chapter 11: Blind Viewership in A Trip to Japan in Sixteen 163 Minutes, Revisited Chapter 12: Loosing Touch with Reality: Cool World 182 SECTION III. Moments of Selfhood: Neoliberal Practices of 197 Portraiture of Selves Chapter 13: A Site of Ethics – Re-enacting Death & Confronting 200 the Self Chapter 14: Poetics of Precarity – Survival at Work 212 Chapter 15: Politics of Intimacy – Relationality, Exchange, 227 and Love Conclusion 243 References 249 Bibliography 249 Filmography 274 i List of illustrations Figure 0. Revolving Self-Portrait, by Nadar, Bibliothèque Nationale de France. c. 1865. Figure 1. The making of Self in the Mirror, Stefan Moses. 1964. Figure 2. Portrait of Adorno’s self-portait, 1964. Figure 3. Self in the Mirror. 1964. Figure 4. Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez. 1656. Figure 5. Nancy Holt (with Richard Serra), Boomerang (still photograph), Video, 10min, 1974. Figure 6. Adrian Piper, Cornered: A Video Installation Project (three still photographs). Video installation. Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. 16 min, 1988. Figure 7. The collection of Robin Wright in The Congress. Figure 8. The Light Stage Sequence. Figure 9. The three realms of vertical loss of the self in The Congress. Figure 10. Ellar Coltrane as Mason Evans, Jr. in Boyhood. Figure 11. The Lunch Sequence. Figure 12. The marking of time in Boyhood. Figure 13. Page 1 & 2. From: Une histoire sans mots. Xu Bing, 2013. Paris: Grasset. Figure 14. A Trip to Japan in Sixteen Minutes, Revisited. ii Figure 15. The promotion of Cool World. Figure 16. The hyper-image in Cool World. Figure 17. The transformation of Holli Would from a doodle into a human. Figure 18. Still from The Act of Killing. Figure 19. Still from The Look of Silence. Figure 20. Still from Megacities. Figure 21. Still from Workingman's death. Figure 22. Still from Whores’ Glory. Figure 23. Still from Dogtooth. Figure 24. Still from Alps. Figure 25. Still from The Lobster. iii Acknowledgements I am most thankful for all the support that I received from individuals and institutions enabling this project. My biggest thanks goes to Isabelle McNeill who has supervised thesis and author with endurance and care, while offering inspiration, support and guidance along the way. Thrown into a world devoid of role models, I am lucky enough to have her as a teacher. Within the Department of French, I would in particular like to thank Emma Wilson, and Laura McMahon, for their commitment and advice in person throughout my time in Cambridge. Natalie Marie Clark Rosen, I so much thank you for always being there for me. I would have been unable to complete this dissertation without the financial support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Cambridge Home and European Scholarship Scheme, the Jebb Fund, Trinity Hall, and Iwona Rosinski. I would also like to acknowledge the financial support in my mobility as a researcher by Trinity Hall, the Fieldwork Fund of the Department of Modern and Medieval Languages, the British Council, the Erasmus programme of the European Union, the Friedrich Schlegel Graduiertenschule für literaturwissenschaftliche Studien at the Freie Universität Berlin, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, Södertorn University, and Julie and Jonathan Rosen. The thesis has benefited from other paid and unpaid, material and immaterial labour, as much as inspiration and collaboration at various stages, central and peripherial to its development. I am thankful for the participation in the summer academy on all aspects of radicality held by Mirjam Schaub and Phillipp Wüschner in Kraków by Studienstiftung and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). I am equally grateful for the participation in the Sixth Humanities College of the Studienstiftung and thank my group on material culture and performance lead by Anne Koch and Peter Bräunlein. My thanks also goes to Rafael Dernbach for collaboration and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, for inviting, producing, and hosting our work there. I am thankful for time at the Friedrich Schlegel Graduiertenschule at the Freie Universität Berlin and the participation in the colloquium of Getrud Koch and Joachim Küpper. I am also thankful to Petra Löffler for mentorship talks at the The Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. This project benefited from presentations and exchanges at different forums held in Cambridge. I am thankful for the participants at events of the Screen Media research seminar, the French graduate research seminar, the Picturing Austrian Cinema Symposium, the Marshall McLuhan Symposium, Screening Work of the Department of German and Dutch, Remembering Violence and Violent Memory at the Faculty of History, the French Graduate Conference, and the Graduate Conference for Screen Media and Cultures. I am equally thankful for the personal exchanges and inspiration at the Institute of Modern Languages Research Seminar, University of London, the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, the Barbican, Södertörn University, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, the Schloss Wartin Foundation, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and the Universität