Architectonics of the Theatre – Structure of the Film – Nooks of the Mind. New York Passages of „Birdman”
Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewicz
grzegorz.nadgrodkiewicz@ispan.plInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3091-5714
Abstract
Nadgrodkiewicz presents an analysis of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s movie Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), offering a reading different than in popular reviews which emphasize the issues of stardom, postmodern irony, film intertextuality or even questions related to the fidelity of adaptation. Starting with a description of the architectonics of New York’s St. James Theatre, which served as a film location for the movie, the author claims that the peculiar claustrophobic dimension of this theatre allowed the director to shape the psychological profile of the main character Riggan Thomson as an actor on the verge of a split personality. Furthermore, Nadgrodkiewicz argues, the architectonics of the theatre presented in Birdman should be seen as the reverse of what is symbolized by the architecture of Manhattan and the openness of the space associated with it. An important context of the analysis is also provided by issues related to film editing (including one-shot film), the system of suture and the “cinematographic” functions of the human hippocampus.
Keywords:
Birdman, architectonics of the theatre, architecture, New York, film editing, suture, film narrative, hippocampus, structure of the mind, Alejandro González IñárrituReferences
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Authors
Grzegorz Nadgrodkiewiczgrzegorz.nadgrodkiewicz@ispan.pl
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3091-5714
Specialist in film studies, he graduated in Cultural Studies with the specialisation in Film Studies from the University of Lodz; he is employed at the Department of Cultural Anthropology, Film and Audiovisual Arts at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw); managing editor of the journal Kwartalnik Filmowy, a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the journal Pleograf. Kwartalnik Akademii Polskiego Filmu and a member of the Polish Society for Film and Media Studies. His research interests include religious film, problems of spirituality in cinema, and issues concerning the relationship between film and theatre. His papers and translations were published i.a. in Kwartalnik Filmowy, Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa and in edited volumes.
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