The Violence and Necrophilia at Coen Brothers’
Abstract
In his analysis of Ethan and Joel Coen’s films Syska makes use of the tools of Erich Fromm’s psychoanalysis to show the necrophyliac nature of their films’ heroes. Violence, one of the most essential components of film reality, is analysed by the author. Syska points out the new ways of depicting violence by stressing the physiological nature of acts of violence and biological nature of dying. The sacred and metaphysical value of death is belittled while prominence is given to its physiological aspects. Syska tries to prove that the hiperbolisation of violence in Coen brothers’ films is the starting point not only for post-modernist plays with experienced spectators but also the attempt to involve them in a pathological discourse whose essence is aesthetic and moral acceptance of cruelty. Syska proves that necrophyliac nature, which is one of the most essential properties making up their film reality, is also a characteristic feature of post-modernism.
Keywords:
Coen brothers, Erich Fromm, necrophiliaReferences
Nie dotyczy / Not applicable
Google Scholar
Authors
Rafał Syskakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Pracuje w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ, badawczo interesuje się m.in. zjawiskiem przemocy w kinie.
Statistics
Abstract views: 0PDF downloads: 0
License
Copyright (c) 2001 Rafał Syska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Rafał Syska, To Touch a Movie: Technical Conditions of the Phenomenon of Film in a Museum , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 113 (2021): Film and Technology
- Rafał Syska, The Memory of Film: Memorative Art in Cinema Museums , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 125 (2024): Cinema as a Memory Machine
- Rafał Syska, Smart Cinema: Wise Cinematography From Indieworld , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 93-94 (2016): American Cinema
- Rafał Syska, Charm of a Harlot: “Maddalena” by Jerzy Kawalerowicz , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 95 (2016): Transnational Dimension of Polish Cinema
- Rafał Syska, Film as a Building Site , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 91 (2015): Film Between Pop Music and Pop Culture
- Rafał Syska, To Experience the Inland of Cinema: A Narrative Analysis of David Lynch’s “Inland Empire” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 71-72 (2010): Narration in Film
- Rafał Syska, Experiments with the Split Screen , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 82 (2013): Experiment: Film and Audiovisual Arts
- Rafał Syska, The Inner World of Women: Chantal Akerman’s Early Work , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 79 (2012): Interiors: On Cinematic Enclosed Space
- Rafał Syska, Traces of Unmade Movies , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 89-90 (2015): Redefinitions of the Classics
- Rafał Syska, Lisandro Alonso – Gaps of Film Realism , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 75-76 (2011): Faces of Reality
