Contextualising Bachelard's later thinking in relation to philosopher Eugène Minkowski, I maintain that Denis' objects reverberate through their surrounding environment and through the film itself, echoing formally and sensuously. In what follows, I focus on a number of charged objects in 35 Shots of Rum, drawing out the ways in which these objects resonate with Bachelardian states of reverie and repose: a train on its tracks, a rice cooker and a child's lantern. 1 By attending to the non-verbal speaking of not only bodies and gestures but also objects and their surroundings, Denis' film reflects the unhurried time of the imagination in Bachelard, where “écor takes precedence over drama” ( 1960/1971, p. ![]() Intrinsic to reverie in Bachelard is his career-long dedication to developing a philosophy of repose wherein one attunes to the time of the imagination, including the imagination of objects (see Bachelard, 1960/1971 1958/1994 1943/2011 1948/2011 1936/2000). For Bachelard, reverie interleaves movement with moments of stillness and contemplation, relaxing the ontological borders between things. In Bachelard's later works on the imagination, the philosopher develops an intersensory account of the imagination that attends to the materiality of objects, spaces and environments. In engaging Bachelard's writings for my discussion of Denis here I am interested in exploring the shifting qualities of movement that pervade 35 Shots of Rum, the film's return to bodies half asleep or at rest and Denis' poetic organisation of the film around particular objects. 35 Shots of Rum, for example, has been described by critics as a film in which characters “seem to have no language for their feelings” ( Bíró, 2009, p. Similarly, much has been made of the non-verbal tendencies of Denis' work. ![]() In much sensuous scholarship to date, Denis tends to be associated with movement: the filming of bodies moving, touching, dancing the forward momentum of vehicles ambiguous slippages between the past and the present or a free-floating movement between shots. ![]() 13)In this article, I bring the twinned concepts of reverie and repose in Gaston Bachelard's philosophy to bear on one of Claire Denis' more gentle, tender and sedate films, 35 Shots of Rum ( 35 Rhums, 2008). Thus, the meticulous, detailed imagination seeks to slip into everything, inviting us not just to retire into our shells but to slip into every shell so that we may live the life of true retirement there and all the values of repose.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |