THE CINEMA OF ATROCITIES: TORTURE AND STATE VIOLENCE ON FILM By ALLISON M. RITTMAYER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Allison M. Rittmayer 2 To my mother, my saja and Caleb 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to start by thanking my chair, Maureen Turim for her mentorship and friendship during my four years at the University of Florida. Since the seminar I took with her during my first semester through my job search and the completion of this project, she has offered her advice and support in all of my endeavors. I thank my committee members Barbara Mennel, Scott Nygren, and Martin Sorbille for their encouragement and insight throughout this process. I have truly enjoyed the productive discussions we engaged in during our meetings. I am especially grateful to Barbara for her extensive meticulous feedback on my writing. I thank the faculty and staff of the Department of English for their support during my graduate studies at UF, and for ensuring that all official business proceeded smoothly. I am also indebted to my friends near and far, without whom I would not have survived graduate school. I thank Beth Dixon, Tamar Ditzian and Marina Hassapopoulou for their encouragement (and commiseration); Georg Koszulinski for being an eternal optimist; Janelle Flanagan and Val Shulman for being my champions; and Harriet Pollack, John Westbrook, and Molly Clay for being my cheering section in Lewisburg. Most importantly, and with the deepest gratitude I thank my family for supporting all of my intellectual endeavors. I am grateful to Caleb Sheaffer for following me down here into the swamp. He deserves a medal for working as my perpetual editor and proofreader, challenging my ideas, and loving me through it all. I thank my mother, Cathy Burton, for having faith in me and always being excited about my academic pursuits. I thank my saja, my sister, Kate Rittmayer for being able to make me laugh no 4 matter what. I thank them both for always being just a call or text away. I could not have achieved my goals without you. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 15 Ethics and Its Uses ................................................................................................. 21 On Lévinas and Derrida .......................................................................................... 25 Ethics and Politics ................................................................................................... 30 The Filmmaker’s Role ............................................................................................. 34 Overview ................................................................................................................. 36 2 THE CLOSE-UP AND THE “GAZE OF THE OTHER UPON ME” .......................... 40 Facing the Viewer ................................................................................................... 46 Overwhelming Faciality ........................................................................................... 50 Looking Away ......................................................................................................... 53 3 BROKEN BODIES .................................................................................................. 66 Watching Torture .................................................................................................... 69 Mediated Encounters with State Violence............................................................... 80 News Media Images ......................................................................................... 81 Guided Encounters ........................................................................................... 85 The Self/Body Split ................................................................................................. 97 4 THE UNSEEN AND THE UNSEEABLE: NOT SHOWING VIOLENCE................. 121 The Unseen .......................................................................................................... 123 Interlude ................................................................................................................ 134 The Unseeable ..................................................................................................... 144 5 THROUGH A FAMILIAR MAZE: THE DISTORTION OF BANAL SPACES IN SCENES OF TORTURE ....................................................................................... 159 Spatial and Lexical Distortions of Imprisonment ................................................... 160 Invading the Home ................................................................................................ 165 The Carnivalesque and the Absurd on the Frontlines ........................................... 168 6 CONCLUSION: HAUNTINGS, THE CONTINUED IMPERATIVE ......................... 195 6 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 203 FILMOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 206 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 211 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 The first image of Bobby Sands’ face. Hunger. Dir. Steve McQueen. Criterion Collection, 2009. DVD. ....................................................................................... 60 2-2 Sands looks into the camera. Hunger. Dir. Steve McQueen. Criterion Collection, 2009. DVD. ....................................................................................... 60 2-3 Sands dying. Hunger. Dir. Steve McQueen. Criterion Collection, 2009. DVD. ... 61 2-4 Maintaining the framing. Hunger. Dir. Steve McQueen. Criterion Collection, 2009. DVD. ......................................................................................................... 61 2-5 Faces of women in Grbavica. Grbavica the and of My Dreams. Dir. asmila bani . Strand Releasing Home ideo . D D. .......................................... 62 2-6 Esma looks into the camera at the end of the opening scene. Grbavica the and of My Dreams. Dir. asmila bani . Strand Releasing Home ideo 2007. DVD. ......................................................................................................... 62 2-7 Esma cries as she testifies to her experiences. Grbavica the and of My Dreams. Dir. asmila bani . Strand Releasing Home ideo . D D. ........ 63 2-8 Bruno looks away in Le Petit Soldat. Le Petit Soldat [The Little Soldier]. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Fox Lorber, 2001. DVD. ........................................................ 63 2-9 Bruno looks down. Le Petit Soldat [The Little Soldier]. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Fox Lorber, 2001. DVD. ...................................................................................... 64 2-10 Bruno avoids the camera. Le Petit Soldat [The Little Soldier]. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Fox Lorber, 2001. DVD. ........................................................................ 64 2-11 Bruno finally looks into the camera. Le Petit Soldat [The Little Soldier]. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Fox Lorber, 2001. DVD. ........................................................ 65 3-1 Electrocution of the eye in State of Siege. State of Siege. Dir. Costa-Gavras. Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, 1980. VHS. ...................................... 109 3-2 Former prisoner demonstrates the “crab position” in Hidden Agenda. Hidden Agenda. Dir. Ken Loach. MGM Home Entertainment, 2002. DVD.................... 109 3-3 Anne looks at pictures from Bosnia in Before the Rain. Before the Rain. Dir. Milcho Manchevski. Criterion Collection, 2008. DVD. ....................................... 110 3-4 Anne spills her coffee in a picture of a woman in an under-breast corset. Before the Rain. Dir. Milcho Manchevski. Criterion Collection, 2008. DVD. ..... 110 8 3-5 News footage from a concentration camp in Welcome to Sarajevo. Welcome to Sarajevo. Dir. Michael Winterbottom. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2004. ................................................................................................................ 111 3-6 News footage of men at a concentration camp. Welcome to Sarajevo. Dir. Michael Winterbottom. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2004. ..................... 111 3-7 Prison guards throw Davey into the gauntlet in Hunger. Hunger. Dir. Steve McQueen. Criterion Collection, 2009. DVD. ..................................................... 112 3-8 Riot police beat Davey in the gauntlet. Hunger. Dir. Steve McQueen. Criterion Collection, 2009. DVD. ....................................................................... 112 3-9 A young riot police member stands aside while the prisoners are probed in Hunger. Hunger. Dir. Steve McQueen. Criterion Collection, 2009. DVD. ......... 113 3-10 The young