From Point of View to Mindgame Films – Between Subjective Techniques and Strategies

Abstrakt

The starting point for this paper is the statement that subjectivisation (subjective narrative) – is one of the key elements in a film medium. However, when its definition is narrowed down, it neither reflects the character of changes in the scope of the opposition between objective-subjective nor its resonance with the notions of individuality, personality or the community.

I focus on a historical expansion of subjectivisation techniques, but there is much more. I would like to answer the question about the way in which these techniques fit into the differences between paradigms and modes of cinema. Firstly, I  consider subjectivisation techniques in Pre-Classical Cinema, PreModernist Cinema and Classical Cinema. Secondly, I reveal how subjectivisation techniques develop into strategies and how certain figures are given less or more importance within narratives. In this context I research subjectivisation in Modernist Cinema. Thirdly, I  draw attention to the relationship between subjectivisation techniques and strategies in contemporary Post-Classical Cinema (the cinema of attractions, interactive techniques). My final suggestion is that mind-game films (representing Postmodernist Cinema) are the domain of a subjectivisation strategy. I have no doubt that the conflict between faith in the objective and faith in the subjective present in cinema leads to the ultimate victory of subjectivity, while what is objective becomes inaccessible.

Mind-game films offer us an exercise in “productive pathologies”, they teach us non-linear thinking, by means of leaps, associations, and all while being distracted. They teach us to switch between schizophrenic regions where nothing is the way it appears to be.