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

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conflictive, and one conflictive and deceptive. P<strong>at</strong>ricia projects herself onto the<br />

female images <strong>of</strong> her reproductions (another example is Renoir’s portrait <strong>of</strong> Mlle.<br />

Irene Cahen d’Anvers, 1880), using the images to cover up her true, deceitful self.<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>at</strong>tributive c<strong>at</strong>egory also includes texts or films th<strong>at</strong> refer to ideas or<br />

conventions associ<strong>at</strong>ed with the plastic arts (thus merging with Robillard’s<br />

associ<strong>at</strong>ive c<strong>at</strong>egory [62]), or to wh<strong>at</strong> Yacobi has called “ekphrastic model,” th<strong>at</strong><br />

is, a type or genre <strong>of</strong> paintings. For example, Gottfried Benn’s poem on<br />

Rembrandt, “Gewisse Lebensabende” (1946), generically alludes to the l<strong>at</strong>e self-<br />

portraits <strong>of</strong> the Dutch artist without specifically discussing one in detail. 59<br />

Rembrandt’s l<strong>at</strong>e self-portraits function here as index <strong>of</strong> his self-searching<br />

<strong>at</strong>titude, his almost painful inquiry into the deepest recesses <strong>of</strong> the ageing self. A<br />

filmic example <strong>of</strong> this type occurs in Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou (1965),<br />

which uses Picasso posters on the wall in the house <strong>of</strong> the female protagonist<br />

Marianne and the gangsters l<strong>at</strong>er on in the film to denote the young woman’s<br />

unconventionality as well as the violence <strong>of</strong> and around her. 60 Yet the Picasso<br />

series contrasts with a series <strong>of</strong> images <strong>by</strong> Renoir, which underscore Marianne’s<br />

romantic spirit and emotion (<strong>at</strong> one point, Marianne says to Ferdinand: “you<br />

speak to me with words and I look <strong>at</strong> you with emotions”). Moreover, most <strong>of</strong> the<br />

paintings cited in Pierrot le fou are (female) portraits <strong>by</strong> Renoir, Picasso,<br />

59 Benn, Gottfried, “Gewisse Lebensabende,” Sämtliche Gedichte. (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag,<br />

1998) 229-231.<br />

60 Pierrot le fou, dir. Jean-Luc Godard, perf. Georges de Beauregard, Anna Karina, Jean-Paul<br />

Belmondo, 1965, DVD, Winstar TV & Video, 1998.<br />

47

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