AuraPoenar

Spaceboundaries:
1
Understandingthedystopiaofthereal

Abstract
: The understanding of our world (of its meaning, be it absent, encrypted or implied), the shaping of the real
inevitably happen against the cosmic aperture which the human existencefaces. Thiscosmicaperturefunctionsasaconstellation of
meanings and images, symptoms and anachronisms which are out of grasp, but which the humanbeingwill trytocontroland fully
explain. The memoryofthe humanitybearswithinitsbirthanddeathaltogether,twohypostasesofits haunting specters.Thereisthe
anamnesis of birth and the
punctum of death, bothinstancesbeingoutofgrasp,elusiveand flickeringasnothingmore butafleeting
flashing instant. Such a title could createthe expectationofapproachingdystopias as disruptingnarratives withintherealandwithin
its images. However, our approach pursues a different thread. We will observe in the case of two cinematic masterpieces how the
real,theworld,lifeitselfisinfactinitsnaturedystopian.
Keywords
:

DystopiaSymptomImageNarrativeMontage
Melancholia

2001:ASpaceOdyssey
.

Theearthisbad,lifeinthisplanetishorrible.There'snothingtogrievefor
Justine,
Melancholia

Examining how a certain idea of destiny and a certain idea of image meander in the apocalyptic
narratives which are common place in the contemporary cinema, we will consider Jacque Rancires
questionregardingthedestinyof imagesandtheway they buildthe real. Ifweunderstand thatbehindthe
same name of image there are several functions whose problematic adjustment represents the very
manifestationofart(Rancire,2003, 9), andofthecinematicart in particular,wewillacceptthatartisnot
apart from reality, that images build both art and reality, configuring discourses and narratives.
Understanding the way(cinematic) imagesfunctioncontributestounderstandingourownreal.Suchmovies
as the twothatmakeour focushere

Melancholia
(von Trier, 2001) and
2001:ASpaceOdyssey (Kubrick,
1968)

are,what we should call, anevent. Avisually complexandlayered narrativeaboutthereal(and,in

this way, alsothemeaning) of ourexistence,aboutthe constructsandconfinementsthatmakeourexistence
possible,and(infact)bearable.
Thefirst shots ofLarsvonTriers
MelancholiashowusacloseupofJustinesface. Behindher,dead
birds are dropping fromthe sky, the airandmovementsare ofa strangeinertialviscosity.Theunfoldingof
thenarrative,the interplayofimages is already there, inthe first framesof the movie,inthese(narratively)
disparate, intermittent images. An analepsis or a prolepsis, both actually. These planscontain visuallythe
memory of the future, the memory of death, of the worlds extinction, amemory which originatesin and
overlaps the memory of the worlds coming intoexistence. Bothmoments originatingfrom and leadingto
2
nothingness, death, extinction at the same time.TheimageofBrueghels painting
Hunters intheSnow is
enflamed and, in the same slowmotion rhythm, disintegrates to ashes, against the background of the
unworldly prologuefromWagners
TristanundIsoldeaccompanyingthestrange,ethereal imagesentrapped
in this extreme slow motion. In outer space, a planet, whose name, Melancholia, is a direct reference to
3
Drersprint, approachestheEarth. On agolf course, Claire(Justines sister)isrunningholdinghersonin
her arms while the ground is turning into a muddy marsh. Claires black horse collapses and two moons
appearin the sky. Justine,in herbridegownis runningthrough aglade, but herfeetbecomeentangledina
woolly yarn, an expressionbest used alsoto describe both hermelancholicapathetic stateandthedespair
at being trapped and limited in the confines of a world which refuses to acknowledge to its frailty and
1

This work was supported byRomanian National Authority for Scientific Researchwithinthe ExploratoryResearch
ProjectPNIIIDPCE201130061.
Brueghels painting was originally part of a series of twelve landscapes

twelve months

covering all the months of the year.

Hunters in the snow may have beenDecember or January,the endorthe beginning of theyear,andin von Triersmontage andatlas
of images the beginningandthe endoflife,the endoflifeandthebeginningofdeath.The chillycolor scheme evokesacoldgloomy
dayinwinter,theseasonofbarrenearthanddeath.
3
The golf course is a reference to Michelangelo Antonionis La Notte, 1961, a movie about the melancholia of a deteriorating
relationshipofamarriedcouple.
2

futility. A secondcloseup follows and, whensheliftsherhands,electricity isflashing fromherfingersand

dancingaroundherfingertips.TheplanetreachestheEarthandimpactoccurs.
Justa few shots andwewitnessan entireregime ofimages,aregimeofwhatRancirecallsrelations
betweenelementsandbetweenfunctions (Rancire,2003,12).Therefore,weare consideringimagesnotas
manifestations ofa certaintechnicalmedium(i.e.cinematic), butasoperations,relationsbetweenthewhole
and itsparts,betweenavisibilityandapossibilityofsignificationandaffectwhichassociatewithit,between
expectations and that which (ful)fills them (Rancire, 2003, 11). The relation between the slowmotion
images and thethunderingWagnerian music is established throughthetension containedboth visually and
auditorily in the slow motion images and in the harassing, haunting, mesmerizing sound. This is what
Rancirecallstherelationbetween part and whole.Weseeimagesthatarepartofthenarrative,thatalready
communicatethatnarrativeeveniftheir presenceis cut,fragmented.Theyarepastedagainsttheflowofthe
musical background, but not as a collage, as these images are a montage of mans fate, they contain the
despair of a colliding universe. A montage is more than a simple juxtaposition of images. It is not a
synthesis, it does not sum up, but it opens the layered space, time and narratives contained in an image.
Thesetemporal,spatialand narrative dimensionsarein constant motion,and theirmontagedeconstructsthe
stillness,confinement and rigidity oftheframes. Amontage isanamnesis,butinthesenseinwhichDerrida
speaks of anamnesis in which amnesia is already present (Derrida, 1990, 52). Between anamnesis and
amnesia, the (cinematic) image is what Walter Benjamin calls
dialectics at a standstill (
Dialektik im
Stillstand
)(Benjamin,1989).Thetensionofthenarrative(thattheviewerdoesnotyetknow,butofwhichhe
is already growing aware) builds up in this montage where the almost still framesandthemusicbecome
narrativenucleiof
visualities
.
Theframesandthesound(track)arealtogetherimages,notthevisualelementsthatmakeuptheframes
and thescenes,butimages as operations which connect and disconnect the visiblefromits significationor
thesoundanditseffect,whicharealreadybuilding, butalsodisconcerting, expectations.(Rancire, 2003,
1213).Suchoperationsarenotnecessarilytheresultof theinherentcharacteristicsofthecinematicmedium.
They aretheresult ofan intentional differenceanddistancingfromthecommonusageofimagesincinema.
DepartingfromaBmoviestoryline,VonTrier approaches itinamannerthatturnsanoverusedstoryofthe
averageAmerican apocalypse disaster movieintoa singular work ofart.Great cinemahas alwaysbeenthe
resultofparting with the regularwaysoffilming,theresult ofattempting toworkwithimages outof their
comfort zone, out of the audiences comfort zone, out of cinemas comfort zone. The result is always a
cinema that stirs emotions, that audiences may like or hate, but at which they cannot remain unmoved,
indifferent, acinema that shakesseverelythecommodityofknowledge,interpretation,criticallanguage,and
common ground. These cinematic images are visual inventions (or, rather, reemerging specters of the
visual) which trouble through excess and complexity, an excess close to how Warburg, and then
DidiHuberman understand and define the symptom (Warburg, 1814, 1923 DidiHuberman, 2002) as
excess, deviation, exception,singularity, nonconformity.Itisunreasonableandoutofplace,and, acinema
thatrefuses toknow oreverestablish (and confine to) its place,a cinemawhich does notofferanswersbut
raises questions, a cinema that does not heal and solve, but, on the contrary, leaves scars, and remains
unsolved.Both
Melancholia and
2001: A Space Odyssey remainsotosayunsolved,becausethenarrative
(thoughinvolvingandoffering humanperspectiveanddeath) iscosmic,goesbeyond thelimitofthehuman
visionorunderstanding.The worldendsbut atcosmic levelthisisnotanisolatedfact,itis partof acertain
rhythm in which space changes and reshapes itself, where no organizing rules apply, no categories or a
transcendentalimplicationoroutlet.
Such visual and narrative fragmentation that we witness at the beginning of
Melancholia and then
repeatedly during the wedding reception scene is also present throughout
Space Odyssey and especially
towards the end of the movie when the camera follows the man who is lost, engulfed in space. Unlike
Ulysses who wanders away, gets lost and in the endreturns,here,ifwecan talk interms of areturn,that
wouldbe, as JeanLucNancy putsit, onlya returnto errance, toendlesslywanderingaway,whichactsasa
deconstruction of the humanconfined coherentword,a deconstruction ofIthaca,oftheconfined shelterina
limitless, shelterless space where meaning does not fold upon itself,does not recuperate or restore things.
Themanwillnot overcome space, norregaina preexisting order,buthe willbelost,resorbedinthisspace:
4

Thisisanotherdirectreferencetoamoviehauntedbymelancholia,AlainResnais
LastYearatMarienbad
,1961.

The eyeofthefetus,exorbitant,theeyeofthatwhichiscoming,offoreseeingexistence,doesnot perform

the
synopsisofa cosmos world. Itsglanceisbeforehandtheglanceitisforeseeing(
prvoyant
)inasense
that is opposite to foresight (
providence
). Undoubtedly, it receives andeven shelters withinthe immense
obscurity overwhich it floats (and it is,first of all,us,theaudience,whothiseyefixes),butitonlycontains
it for as long asitisopen,asit itself is immensely,exorbitantlyopen towardthisspaceinwhichithasbeen
launched,tothisspacethatitdoesnotorganizeaboveallinarepresentation,buttowhichitconfinesfromall
partsandinallsenses.(Nancy,1993,64)
This
mute immediacyof the visible
, as Rancire calls it, undoubtedly radicalizes thevisualeffect,but
this radicalization operates and enforces itself through asortof (inter)playof the mechanisms(andofthis
power
) that separate the cinemafrom the plastic arts anddrawsitneartoliterature:thepowertoanticipate
the effect in order to better move or contradict it. The image is never asimplereality. Theimages ofthe
cinema are first and foremost operations, rapports between what can be said and the visible, means of
playingwiththebeforeandafter,thecauseandtheeffect.(Rancire,2003,14)
In both movies discussed the montage of sound and images bare visible these mechanisms. In
Melancholia
, the first frames/images are almost stills, Brueghels painting in this montage slowly
disintegrates,thestillframes functioningasprolepsesalreadyannouncingtheend,anticipating,playingwith
the viewers expectations and comfort zone, not delivering, despite their expectations (as the common
apocalyptic cinemaalwaysdelivershumankindintheveryend).InthismontageVonTrierdeconstructsboth
paintingand cinema, intheir limitedselfcontainedand independentunderstanding.Kubrickalsoplayswith
this anticipation,withthebeforeandafter,alsooverturningexpectations.Theforeseeablecourseofeventsis
constantly blurred, intercut by visual symptom or anachronisms, like the sleek black monolith floating
aimlessly through space. It is not an indication (of some yet obscure, but to be discovered by the end,
meaning). Kubrick deconstructs, thwarting and discrediting readymade categories as sciencefiction: It
takes space seriously as desorientation and as distancing of meaning (of human life, history, technical
progress, etc.) (Nancy, 1993, 63) If the movie proposes anything as an instance or as an indication of
meaning, JeanLuc Nancy observes, it is the black monolith which is compact and impenetrable, which
signals, rather like an intimation, to alltechniqueandthe(in)humanityinit,butwhichisnotGod, whichis
only present through its hard and smooth surface, presence ofan absence. . .Ifthe directorleavesa door
open hereto aninterpretationintermsofanegativetheology,thisisthwartedbyanotheraspect:thefact that
themonolithwithitsimpeccable rectangular formappearsitselfto be more likelya productoftechnique,a
machined piece. (Nancy, 1993, 63) But even so,against thisimpenetrablemute appearance,themonolith
appearsasa symptomthat(inter)cuts and overthrows thenarrativeflowandcoherenceofthemovie.Itisan
impenetrable memory (as its layers and fissuresarenotvisible)thatopensthelinearnarrative,whichsignals
that there is nosuchthingaslinear narrative,thateachnarrativeisa constellationof threads, historiesand
images. Themonolithcould be whatBenjamincalls
vortexorigin
(
originetourbillon
)(Benjamin,1985)as,
despite the impression of being aloof, and impossible to reach, it acts in factlikeanopeningtowards the
space,timeandmemoryofourexistence. Themanwhowassentintospacewiththehelpofatechnique(the
computer Hal) which hewillendupshuttingdownanddisconnectingfrom itself(asitgraduallydevelopsits
own paranoid will and project)willbehimselfdisconnectedfromthistechniquethathadbecome thevehicle
of his lifeandexistence andplunges inthedarknessofmemory,revisiting(not passively,butexperiencing,
discovering) his own(entire)life,andalsothenarratives ofhumanexistence.Thistechniquehe disconnects
from itself becomes . . . idle, finite/infinite, this man, instead of ensuring himself the empire of space,
touchingthelimitofspace,of himself,recrossestime,space,drifting,deviatingtimeup tohisownorigin,in
orderto wander adrift,floating fetuswithin the placenta of galaxies,hiseyewideopenuponthedisoriented
space, upon the time with no direction,anduponus,viewersofthispensiveeyeandatthesametimealmost
devoidofglance,absorbingtheentirespacejustasmuchasaspiratedandswolleninit.(Nancy,1993,63)
Both movies engage upon a differentperspective of the cosmos,of man beingtrappedin his limited
condition strugglingto believe he is in control.Yet, thehumanbeingisfarfromanycontroloftheuniverse,
but merely at its mercy. Justines brotherinlaw, an amateur astronomer, believes that Melancholias
trajectory can be predicted and that the end of humanity will undoubtedly be averted. But Melancholia
engages in a death dance of attractionandrejectionwithourplanet.Whentheimminent impactisbeyond
any doubt, hecommits suicide,not beingable toacceptthathe(asahuman being)wasnolongerincontrol.
3

The equations, regularities andpredictionsthatmarkthehumanlife and existencewithin the unpredictable

contents of the universe are limited and thereforeeasily overthrown. JeanLuc Nancy speaks interms ofa
new typeofcosmology whichisacosmic, nolonger confinedtomans(pointof)view,tohisgrasp.Sucha
cosmology, as both movies reveal, is dystopian because it cannot be regulated, ordered or tamed (when
compared to the utopian illusion of knowledge and control of the human beingoverthespace it inhabits,
suchanacosmos comesacrossasdisrupting):...wedonthaveyetacosmologytoanswerthenoncosmos
we are contained in a noncosmos which is nolonger chaos, asa chaosfollows acosmos,orprecedes it,
whileour
a
cosmos is notprecededorfollowedbyanything.Ittracesitself ...thecontouroftheunlimited,
oftheabsolutelimitwhichnothingelsedelimits.(Nancy,1993,62)
The human being lives in a philosophy of the limits (
philosophie des confins
), explains JeanLuc
Nancy. This aspect best defines ourcondition aswe confine ourselves tothemultidirectional, plurilocal,
reticulated, comprehensivespacewherewetakeplace.Wedonotoccupythepointoforiginofaperspective,
or the overhanging point ofan axonometry, butwetouchfromallsides,our sighttouches fromallsidesits
limits, in other words, at the same time indistinctly and undecidedly the finiteness thus exposed of the
universe, and the infinite intangibility of the external rim of the
View limit . . . (Nancy, 1993, 64).
Therefore, limit isthelimitofthevision.Inthislight,theauthorconcludes,the meaningoftheworld,andof
humanexistence is neitheroutside it,norwithin.Its meaningistherewhereits limitis,but,inthelogicof
limit in general,touching meanssurpassing it, surpassing it nevermeans touchingthe otherside.Thelimit
unlimitsthepassage tolimit.Inthis context,thequestionoftechniqueis nothingelsebutthequestionof
5
meaningat/againstitslimits,or,rather,meaningattheedge
(Nancy,1993,65).
Cinema astechnique, ontheotherhand, uses imagesnotasa relation betweenthatwhichtookplace
somewhereelse andthatwhich unfolds, and takesplaceunderourveryeyes,butasoperationswhichmake
theartisticnatureofwhatwesee(Rancire,2003,14).
In his book on photography, Andr Rouill uses the generic term of visibilities (
visibilits
) in an
understanding of the visible close toRancire:visibilities name thingsin an obviousmannerandembody
forms,buttheyarenot confused inthem.Independentofthingsandforms,visibilitiesaremannersofseeing
and of making visible, lights and manners of distributing light

singular repartition of the clear and the

obscure, of whatisseenandwhat is notseen (Rouill, 2005, 353).AsRancireputs it, animageisnotan
exclusivity of the visible. Animageisfirst of all arelation,thatwhichmakesthemontagepossible,despite
thefragmentationoftheframes.Andthroughthat,itisarelationwiththatwhichisnotvisible, past,futureor
present(likethedisasterin
Melancholia
).
The images of cinema and (according to Rancire) of art ingeneral areoperations whichproduce a
divergence, a difference within the visible and the real itself

they are distancing operations. They

constantly shift between resemblance and dissimilarity, astheydonot function as amere copyofthereal,
buttheycreatetherealthemselves.The cinemadoesnot imitate,butcreatesthereal.It isnota technique of
mere reproduction,butrathera montageofoperationsand relationsbetween images,which cansometimes
bewords(bestseeninGodardscinema),orsounds(asthe
Prelude
to
TristanundIsoldeorthe
BlueDanube
Waltz in the two movie discussed), or they are in a visible which does not produceitsimage(asitisthe
disaster relating all the disparate frames at the beginning of Von Triers movieor as it is the threat ofthe
disasterin
A Space Odysseywhichis present, butnotvisible,inallthesilentandlongspaceshots).Insucha
montage asthatofthebeginningshots of
Melancholia
,thesuggestionofacatastrophe lurching,threatening,
happening is no longer in the future. Evenas the moviebeginswiththenewlywed couple headingforthe
reception, thedisasterisalreadythere,italreadyhappened,itisalreadyin the past, already inthefirst still
shots of the movie and throughout the subsequent visible unfolding of the narrative, in Justines
melancholia and in Claires hatred for it, for Justines living in the disaster and in its ruin, towards her
thinking, envisaging,contemplating the disaster and puttingitintowords. But Claireherselfbeginstothink
Technique is preciselythatwhich is neither
theoria
, nor
poiesis
:thatwhich does notassignthe meaningeitherasknowledge,oras
oeuvre. It is for this reason that today science can so well pass for
technoscience without being the case of disparaging its
knowledge to a simple instrumentation: science does no longer assign, in a metaphysical way, the virtuallyfinalpunctuationofa
knowledge of truth, but, on the contrary, it assigns more and more theconjugation andexerciseoftruths throughout
techne
, neither
knowledge, nor oeuvre, but incessant passage to the borders of
phusis
. The
phusisorthe nature havebeenthe means[
les figures
]of
selfrepresentation.
Techne initiates the coming, the
diffrance of the presentation, removing from it, on the side of the origin, the
valueoftheself(
auto
),andonthesideoftheending,thevalueofthepresence.
5

(about) the disaster,beginsto understandthatthe fateofthehumanityhasalreadybeendecided, isnolonger

a matter of future, but a matter of past, a matter of a continuouspresent: To think the disaster(ifthisis
possible,anditisnot possible inasmuchaswesuspect that thedisasteristhought) istohavenolongerany
future in which to think it. The disaster is separate, that which is mostseparate. When the disastercomes
upon us,it doesnotcome. Thedisasteris its imminence, butsincethefuture, asweconceiveitintheorder
of lived time, belongsto the disaster,the disaster hasalways alreadywithdrawn or dissuaded it thereisno
futureforthedisaster,justasthereisnotimeorspaceforitsaccomplishment.(Blanchot,1995,12)
Butthisisafarreachingdisaster,notthatoftheisolatedhumanbeing (ofJustine,oroftheastronautin
the
Space Odyssey
), but of the humanity, the disaster that signals itself through these (so tosay) isolated
cases. The cinematic montage of images produces an alteration of the common understanding and
expectations (
resemblance
) of (depicting) the disaster. This is
dissimilarity through montage as it both
clarifies and
obscures its images and their narrative threads. Von Triers montage
clarifies Brueghels
paintingthroughthe relationsitestablisheswiththeentireopeningshotofthemovie,andyetit
obscuresit,it
blurs itaspainting,asanimagebelongingtoaspecificgenreand/orart.Theslowmotionframesare,intheir
turn
obscured
, yet
clarified
. Through the emphasis placed on them by the slow motion, the images are
singularized, they are isolated as (im)possible thoughts of the disaster. And here lies the obscurity, in
thinking the disaster (if that, as Blanchot says, is ever possible). But by thinking it through montage and
images,cinemaisthinkingitsowndisaster.
The disaster ruins everything, all the while leaving everything intact. It does not touch anyone in
particular Iamnot threatened by it,butspared,left aside.ItisinthiswaythatI amthreatened itis
inthiswaythatthedisasterthreatens inmethatwhichisexteriortome

anotherthanIwhopassively
become other. There is no reaching the disaster.Outofreachis he whomitthreatens,whetherfrom
afar or close up, it is impossible to say: theinfiniteness of the threathas insomewaybrokenevery
limit. We are on the edgeofdisasterwithoutbeing able tosituate it inthefuture:itisratheralways
already past, and yet we are ontheedgeorunder the threat, allformulationswhich would imply the
future

thatwhichisyet tocome

ifthe disaster werenot that which doesnotcome,thatwhichhas

putastoptoeveryarrival.(Blanchot,1995,12)

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