Cinema and Semiotic: Peirce and Film Aesthetics, Narration, and Representation

693 Pages·2005·4.6 MB·English

by  P. Johannes Ehrat SJ

CINEMA AND SEMIOTIC:
PEIRCE AND FILM AESTHETICS, NARRATION,
AND REPRESENTATION
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Cinema and Semiotic
Peirce and Film Aesthetics,
Narration, and Representation
Johannes Ehrat
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© UniversityofTorontoPressIncorporated2005
Toronto Buffalo London
PrintedinCanada
ISBN0-8020-3912-X
Printedonacid-freepaper
LibraryandArchivesCanadaCataloguinginPublication
Ehrat,Johannes,1952–
Cinemaandsemiotic:Peirceandfilmaesthetics,narration,and
representation/JohannesEhrat.
(Torontostudiesinsemioticsandcommunication)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8020-3912-X
1.Motionpictures–Semiotics. 2.Motionpictures–Aesthetics.
3.Peirce,CharlesS.(CharlesSanders),1839–1914. I.Title. II.Series.
PN1995.E3972005 791.4390194 C2004-901722-5
UniversityofTorontoPressacknowledgesthefinancialassistancetoits
publishingprogramoftheCanadaCouncilandtheOntarioArtsCouncil.
UniversityofTorontoPressacknowledgesthefinancialsupportforits
publishingactivitiesoftheGovernmentofCanadathroughtheBook
PublishingIndustryDevelopmentProgram(BPIDP).
SaintPaul,jecrois,disaitquel’imageaurasaplénitudedanslarésurrection
Jean-LucGodard,quotedinIshaghpour(1986),297
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 OnSigns,Categories,andRealityandHowTheyRelateto
Cinema 8
1.1 TheUseofSigns 14
1.2 TheConstructionofMeaning 24
1.3 InvestigatingConductasaForm 31
1.4 TheCategoriesofBehaviour 50
1.5 TheCategorialFormofBehaviour 54
1.6 LogicofRelations 69
1.7 TheMetaphysicsofPragmaticisticSemiotic 96
2 SemioticandItsPracticalUseforCinema 112
2.1 Cinema‘Is’aClassofSign 116
2.2 TheIconismofCinema:AfirstSemioticApproach 135
2.3 (FromFilmPragmaticsto)ThePragmaticismofCinema 148
3 What‘Is’Cinema? 165
3.1 Cinema‘Is’Syntagma 171
3.2 Cinema‘Is’SignFunction 180
3.3 Cinema‘Is’Percept 191
3.4 Cinema‘Is’MovingMatterorTime 214
3.5 WhatCinemaBecomes:TheoryObjectsCompared,Reconciled,
Rejected 243
Intermezzo:CinematicImaginationofGodard’sJevoussalue,
Marie 248
viii Contents
4 NarrationinFilmandFilmTheory 283
4.1 TheNarratologicalQuestion,Peirce,andCinema 284
4.2 TheSemioticofNarrativeTime 287
4.3 CinematicTime 314
Intermezzo:TwoKindsofNarrativeTimeinDreyer’sOrdet 320
5 Narration,Time,andNarratologies 345
5.1 Ricoeur’sMimesis 346
5.2 Heidegger’sEkstasis 350
5.3 Aristotle’sPoesis 360
5.4 Greimas’sSemiosis 371
5.5 Bordwell’sFormalism 379
5.6 Olmi’sGenesi 387
6 EnunciationinCinema 398
6.1 Enunciation:FromVaguenesstoGenerality 401
6.2 NarrativeEnunciation 409
6.3 RhetoricalEnunciationinCinema:MeaninginFigures 435
6.4 AestheticEnunciationinFilm 457
Epilogue:TwoAestheticProcessesinCinema 528
Conclusion 555
Notes 561
Bibliography 649
Filmography,byDirector 663
Index 667
Acknowledgments
Cinematography (movement-writing) began as steganography (hid-
den writing on the wall of the Roman College). Athanasius Kircher,
S.J.,iscreditedwiththeinventionofcinemaasideaandasapparatus.
He called it steganographia catoptrica (fol. 912) in his Ars magna lucis et
umbraeindecemlibrosdigesta,quibusadmirandaelucisetumbraeinmundo,
atque adeo universa natura, vires effectusque uti nova, ita varia novorum
reconditiorumque speciminum exhibitione, ad varios mortalium usus, pand-
untur; only later it went by its hallmark laterna magica. This was in
1646. Fr Kircher was more interested in bringing the hidden truth to
light(somuchabouttheseminal‘cinematicapparatus’)thaninenter-
taining (even though his demonstrations of the laterna magica in the
Roman College apparently were also major social events, of which he
wasperfectlyawarewhenhewroteontheverysamefol.912:‘Notan-
dum&hicliterassingulasnescioquooccultonaturaepictricisartificio
omni colorum genere depictas videri: quae res uti insolens est, ita &
dicivixpostest,quantaminspectatoribusadmirationemsuscitet’).
Itismyjoy to continue humbly –in this same venerable Collegium
Romanum (which became the Gregorian University) – the intellectual
pursuit of the secrets of light and shadows (also ad varios mortalium
usus&a.m.D.g.).
Myownadmiratioforcinemakeptgrowingasaresultoflongstudy.
Thegroundwaslaidinparticularbyafewteachers,towhomIremain
grateful and indebted. Marc Gervais, S.J. (Loyola campus, Montreal),
taughtmeeverythingaboutcinemaandforcedmetoemphaticallysee
andwrite(sanssplitinfinitives,clareetdistincte,inplainEnglish)what
cinematographiceyesseeandnotwhatmindspeculates.Iowehimall
my love for cinema. Enrico Carontini (Université du Québec à Mont-