Béla Balázs and the eye of the microscope

Abstract

This study explores the significance of the cinematic close-up to one of the earliest theories of film, produced by Béla Balázs, on the basis of a widespread technique of microscopy in the life sciences, notably in the work of his brother Evin Bauer, a theorist of microbiology. Balázs imagines that silent film records life in its immanence and spontaneity by virtue of what he calls the “physiognomic” nature of its signs. Rather than generating signs that must be passed through an alphabetic cipher, as had been required under the regime of the written or literary, Balázs presents film as liberating our access to the flow of optical data. Interestingly, however, Balázs retains the need otherwise characteristic of scientific analysis for dividing up the image into semiotic units, what he describes as “atomization.” He insists on returning the real to a symbolic order and making film into a language.

Keywords

film history;media studies;science studies;Weimar cinema;media archaeology;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2012
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	791
COBISS:	42059523
ISSN:	1787-7245
Views:	2001
Downloads:	0
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