Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

the painting outwards by animating them, by giving them voice and movement,
and by adding a soundtrack as an acoustic context. In so doing, these two
categories seduce the audiences to their point of view through the visual-verbal-
auditory impact of the ekphrasis. In the interpretive category, this seduction tends
to be aesthetic, such as the de- and re-constructive aesthetics in Korda’s
Rembrandt, which de- and re-constructs self-portraiture of the film for the viewer.
In the dramatic category, on the other hand, the seduction tends to be socio-
political, as for example in the two Goya films which foreground the political
interpretation of the Sueño de la razón and use it to emphasize the artist’s political
commitment and involvement.
Future studies could investigate if and how the paragone and the audience-
function of films about modern art and artists change. How do films
transmedialize abstract art such as Modigliani’s, that of the graffiti artist Basquiat,
or of the fictional artist in Rivette’s Belle noiseuse? Given the fact that strictly
speaking, a dramatization of the paintings will no longer be possible with abstract
art, do these films develop different types of ekphrasis and different types of
audience-functions? Especially in the case of the Belle noiseuse, the dramatization
of the work of art is replaced by a dramatization of the creation process. Thus,
while the category of dramatic ekphrasis still applies, its audience function is
likely to change, as the audience participates more directly in the filmic (re-)
creation of the work of art.
232