Desplechin, Lynch, Antonioni: l’Apocalypse réinventée au cinéma

Michel AROUIMI


Abstract:

The obvious allusions to the Book of Revelations in the contemporary cinema are less remarquable than the onirical alterations of this Book in the imagination of some great flmmakers, especially Michelangelo Antonioni (L’Eclisse, 1962), David Lynch (Lost Highway, 1995) and more recently Arnaud Desplechin (Un conte de Noël, 2008). There is no link between these flms, but a spiritual analogy, concerning their apocalyptic symbolism, beyond the evident difference of their aesthetic. Such a symbolism concerns the violent duality, a topic of these flms, which determines not only the action of the script, but the aesthetic and architecture of the flm. The myth of the divine Word, or the Only One, irradiates the Book of John. And this myth fnds many echoes in these flms, revealing the spiritual quest of Antonioni, Lynch and Desplechin. These creators are “poets”, and many great poets, like Rimbaud, are fascinated by the myth of the Beast: mythical incarnation of illusion, and a guilty model for every artist, confronted to the real world. In many ways, these flms can be read like a modern “apocalypse”…

Keywords: Antonioni, Lynch, Desplechin, Cinema, The Beast, Myth of the One, Duality, Rivalry, Aesthetic

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