When: 5.30pm, Wednesday 1st March 2017
Where: David Hume Tower LG.08
Paper: Cinematic Iconoclasm in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours: Blue
Presenter: Chiara Quaranta
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We're pleased to announce the details of next week’s LLC Work in Progress Seminar (Wednesday 1st March 2017).
Film Studies PhD candidate Chiara Quaranta will be presenting her paper “Cinematic Iconoclasm in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours: Blue"
The seminar will take place at 5.30pm in David Hume Tower LG.08. The event is open to everyone.
Come and join us for an exciting talk, a lively discussion and tea, coffee and biscuits!
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Abstract:
One of the marks of contemporary Western culture is its propensity to communicate through images, so much so that we constantly find ourselves surrounded by elements addressing sight. Among the various stances that can be taken towards images, iconoclasm –the willful literal or metaphorical destruction of images– and iconophilia – the love for images– constitute the opposite extremes of the spectrum. These conflicting positions are fed by the ambiguous status of the image and the problematic relationship between copy (image) and prototype.
My argument develops from the consideration that cinema too is affected by the ambiguity of the nature of the image, for cinema is both a tool for the mimetic reproduction of reality and a means of creating an illusionistic world. Therefore, within cinema there are different stances starting from the interpretation of the status of the image. Among the possible attitudes, iconoclasm finds a place as the rejection of a specific type of cinematic image, that which can be defined as spectacle-image. In this paper I will examine cinematic iconoclasm in Kieślowski’s Three Colours: Blue (1993), focusing on its ethical dimension. An overall figurative film, Three Colours: Blue employs a monochromatic image several times. I will analyse how this peculiar image – the monochrome as that which annuls any figurative image– corresponds to an iconoclastic refusal of the spectacularised image and directly questions our right to show and see everything.
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About Chiara:
Chiara Quaranta is a PhD candidate in Film Studies at The University of Edinburgh. Her research investigates the issue of iconoclasm in post-World War 2 Western European cinema, examining the problematic relationship between the cinematic image and its model in films.