kvarterakademisk - Akademisk kvarter - Aalborg Universitet

akademiskacademic quarterkvarterBody RefractionsSteen Christiansenthat we must accept as perceptually realistic that which is referentiallyunreal (Ndalianis, 2000, p. 264)We must of course keep in mind here that the cinematic imageswe see are illusions, no matter how realistic the digital effects are. Noone believes or is expected to believe that Natalie Portman physicallytransformed, only that the character Nina within the diegesisdoes physically transform. That is why I insist first of all on the affectivenature of the images and second of all point out that the imagestransform from celluloid to digital. In the first instance of the affectiveimages, it is through affect that the boundaries between spectator/realityand representation are collapsed moving beyond the divisionwhich representation itself implies. That is why the affectiveimage comes most to the fore in the digital images, because here wemove beyond the idea of sign and referent because there is no profilmicevent (everything in front of the camera), which allows us torealize what Deleuze and Guattari point out, that “representationsare bodies, too!” (Deleuze and Guattari, 2008, p. 95) It is the representationalimage-body of Black Swan which is transformed throughthe morph and it is this morphing which allows the film’s transgressivemove beyond representation and beyond the image-fantasy ofclassical Hollywood cinema. Therefore, it is also no accident that themorphing which takes place is centered on the body, as the stablebody has generally been the basis for a continuous sense of self.Nina, far from a stable self, is also physically fluid and so the representationalimage-body breaks down, something we can identify asa dominant motif in pretty much all the films which have been identifiedas post-cinematic by scholars such as Shaviro, Matt Hansonand David Rodowick. By transgressing the representational boundariesand recognizing that such an issue is deeply problematic in adigital age, Black Swan joins a growing line of post-cinematic filmswhich may be indicative of a new emerging cinema to take its placenext to the movement-image and the time-image; an image we maybegin to call the morph-image.Volume03 314