The filmic character between the narrative and the sensorial

• Grant number: 17/11616-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 15, 2017
• End date: April 14, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Cinema
• Principal Investigator: Cristian da Silva Borges
• Grantee: João Vitor Resende Leal
• Supervisor: Andre Gaudreault
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université de Montréal, Canada
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/06711-1 - Trance figures: the film character between the narrative and the sensorial, BP.DR

Abstract

This research internship abroad is part of our PhD research project whose main objective is to analyze the relationship between the narrative and the sensory in cinema. Our approach deals with three different conceptions of the film character: the film character understood as an articulating element of the narrative, generally modeled after the human person (which we will call the "person-character"), the film character as an energy underlying the narrative (the "figure-character"), and the film character as a body in the image or as the image's body itself (the "presence-character"). We expect that such an approach will allow us to better understand the articulations and the supposed tensions between the narrative dimension and the sensorial (figural, material) dimension not only in cinema but in art in general. The research internship will focus particularly on the concept of "narrative integration" used by Gaudreault and Gunning to describe the historical and theoretical shift from the "cinema of attractions" to the classic narrative cinema - we will draw on this concept in order to analyze moments of narrative suspension (or, as we prefer, moments of narrative modulation), that is, moments in which sensory appeals disrupt narrative transparency and the character's usual premises. At the same time, we will turn our attention to installations and videographic sculptures (works of Tony Oursler, Otávio Donasci, Denis Marleau and others) to further explore Patrice Pavis's notion of "character effect" and to widen the very notion of film character, thus seeking new perspectives for audiovisual narrative. (AU)