The Representation of the Afterlife in Film

168 Pages·2015·1.26 MB·English

University of Miami
Scholarly Repository
Open Access Theses Electronic Theses and Dissertations
2011-08-06
You Only Live Twice: The Representation of the
Afterlife in Film
Amanda J. Shapiro
University of Miami, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at:https://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_theses
Recommended Citation
Shapiro, Amanda J., "You Only Live Twice: The Representation of the Afterlife in Film" (2011).Open Access Theses. 280.
https://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_theses/280
This Open access is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at Scholarly Repository. It has been accepted for
inclusion in Open Access Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected].
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: THE REPRESENTATION OF THE AFTERLIFE IN FILM

By

Amanda Joy Shapiro

A THESIS

Submitted to the Faculty
of the University of Miami
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Master of Arts

Coral Gables, Florida

August 2011
©2011
Amanda Joy Shapiro
All Rights Reserved
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: THE REPRESENTATION OF THE AFTERLIFE IN FILM

Amanda Joy Shapiro

Approved:

_____________________ ______________________
Christina Lane, Ph.D. Terri A. Scandura, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Motion Pictures Dean of the Graduate School

______________________ _________________________
William Rothman, Ph.D. Jane Alison, M.F.A.
Professor of Motion Pictures Associate Professor of English
SHAPIRO, AMANDA JOY (M.A., Film Studies)
You Only Live Twice: The Representation (August 2011)
of the Afterlife in Film

Abstract of a thesis at the University of Miami.

Thesis supervised by Professor Christina Lane.
No. of pages in text. (160)

The objective of this thesis is to examine and analyze the presentation of spaces,
figures, and the processes of judgment in afterlife films. American and foreign titles as
well as television series are assessed as afterlife films by two criteria: (1) A character has
clinically died yet continues to exist and (2) a living character finds his or herself in an
afterlife space. Films with characters that have near-death experiences (NDEs) are
included in relation to the above three qualities. After screening nearly one hundred and
thirty titles, I have found there is a basic formula structure that has been expanded and
transformed into seven other structures, plus those that are combined for a unique
narrative. The afterlife corpus is divided into five distinct eras by the quantity of releases
that fluctuate in accordance with 20th and early 21st century cultural anxieties and
technological advances. A secondary argument proposes why the afterlife story is
perfectly suited to the film medium plus why the industry and audiences are incessantly
drawn to the afterlife film premise. The ideas from Dutch scholar J.M.L. Peters’ 1961
UNESCO publication Teaching About the Film on film’s power to mentally transport
audiences into a “second virtual world” and filmmaker Jon Boorstin’s The Hollywood
Eye: What Makes Movies Work of cinematography styles that anticipate audience
reception are used as tools to better understand these goals. A dozen are repeatedly cited
for extensive study: Liliom (1934 France), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and its
remakes, Heaven Can Wait (1943), Angel on My Shoulder (1946), A Matter of Life and
Death (Stairway to Heaven 1947 UK), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and its sequel,
Ghost (1990), Defending Your Life (1991), Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), Don’t
Tempt Me (2001 Spain), Corpse Bride (2005), and Enter the Void (2010). An inventory
of similar films is cited to bolster arguments or as samples. The afterlife is both a distant
yet familiar world of the mind. The afterlife film perpetuates universal and age-old
questions on the significance of life and death in the guise of enticing sights and stories.
Each afterlife film may have its own identifiable design and theme but they are connected
to higher concerns of mortality and second chances.
DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank my mom, younger sister, and close friends.
I thank my professors, past and present, for their teaching, encouragement, and patience.
I thank the University of Miami and the GAFAC association for financial compensation.
This project process has educated, inspired, and challenged my own philosophy.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVEW 1

METHODOLOGY 6
A CENTRAL EXAMPLE AND STARTING POINT 20
CHAPTER ONE: SPACES 23
CHAPTER TWO: FIGURES 71
CHAPTER THREE: PROCESSES OF JUDGMENT 118
CONCLUSION AND CAPSTONE ANALYSIS 141
SELECT FILMOGRAPHY 155
SELECT WORKS CITED 158
iv
Introduction and Literature Review

The objective of this thesis is to examine and analyze a series of afterlife films,
focusing specifically on the presentation of spaces, figures, and processes of judgment.
American and foreign titles as well as television series are assessed as afterlife films by
two criteria: (1) A character has clinically died yet continues to exist and (2) a living
character finds him or herself in an afterlife space. Films with characters that have near-
death experiences (NDEs) are included in relation to the above three qualities. After
screening nearly one hundred and thirty titles, I have found there is a basic formula
structure that has been expanded and transformed into seven other structures, which have
additionally led to further combinations. The afterlife corpus is divided into five distinct
eras by the quantity of releases that fluctuate in accordance with 20th and early 21st
century cultural anxieties and technological advances.
A secondary argument proposes that the afterlife story is perfectly suited to the
film medium and that the industry and audiences are incessantly drawn to the afterlife
film premise. Two primary sources are used as tools to better understand these goals: the
ideas from Dutch scholar J.M.L. Peters’ 1961 UNESCO publication Teaching About the
Film on cinema’s power to mentally transport audiences into a “second virtual world”
and filmmaker Jon Boorstin’s The Hollywood Eye: What Makes Movies Work on
cinematography styles that anticipate audience reception. This thesis devotes extensive
study to one dozen films: Liliom (1934 France), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and its
remakes, Heaven Can Wait (1943), Angel on My Shoulder (1946), A Matter of Life and
Death (Stairway to Heaven 1947 UK), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and its sequel,
Ghost (1990), Defending Your Life (1991), Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), Don’t
1
2
Tempt Me (2001 Spain), Corpse Bride (2005), and Enter the Void (2010). An inventory
of similar films is cited to bolster arguments or provide further samples. The afterlife is
both a distant yet familiar world of the mind. The afterlife film perpetuates universal and
age-old questions on the significance of life and death in the guise of enticing sights and
stories. Each afterlife film may have its own identifiable design and theme but all of them
are connected to higher concerns of mortality and second chances.
Since the1890s, an indefinable number of films have been released that feature
the afterlife yet the only film scholarship literature available for facilitating this study
focuses on ghosts and angels. Works that examine the representation of Heaven and Hell
belong to other disciplines of theology, philosophy, art history, literature studies, and
cultural studies. Here, any artwork or religious tenets mentioned are used as
reinforcement of the film’s analysis and serve as placeholders in the mind’s eye. Some
significant resources that have assisted such background knowledge are Jansons’ History
of Art 6th edition, R.C. Finucane’s Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of
Ghosts, Brian Innes’ Death and the Afterlife, Tom Schouweiler’s Great Mysteries
Opposing Viewpoints: Life After Death, Jeffrey Long’s Evidence of the Afterlife: The
Science of Near-Death Experiences, and Lisa Miller’s Heaven: Our Enduring
Fascination With the Afterlife; plus various texts that explain the theologies and beliefs in
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I will strive to illuminate the
images of Heaven, Hell, ghosts, and angels as well as with other spaces, forms of return
such as resurrection and reincarnation, and the processes of automatic judgment or by
divine trial. There is no other work that attempts to accomplish such a feat in film studies