The image of Christ in films: An idolatry case
The philosopher Marie-José Mondzain, in her research on the contemporary imaginary, goes back to the second crisis of the Byzantine iconoclasm to rescue a common operative concept in the study of the images produced and disseminated in present times. We will start from this debate, synthesized in th...
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2021 |
| Country: | Brasil |
| Institution: | Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) |
| Repository: | Revista FAMECOS: Mídia cultura e tecnologia |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br:article/37184 |
| Online Access: | https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/revistafamecos/article/view/37184 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Icon Idol Image of Christ Icono Ídolo Imagen de Cristo Ícone Imagem de Cristo |
| Summary: | The philosopher Marie-José Mondzain, in her research on the contemporary imaginary, goes back to the second crisis of the Byzantine iconoclasm to rescue a common operative concept in the study of the images produced and disseminated in present times. We will start from this debate, synthesized in the opposition eikon / eidolon, to compare the image of Christ in two different religious films: “The King of Kings” (1927), by Cecil B. DeMille, and “King of Kings” (1961), by Nicholas Ray. Film analysis will help us reveal the way in which the two filmmakers envisaged the dilemma of idolatry: In DeMille’s film, in order to avoid an idolatrous representation of Jesus, it is used an excess of mediations, characterizing Him according to a previous iconographic imaginary; in Ray’s film, on the other hand, the representation of Christ seems to reflect – as an authentic product of its time – the image of an idolatrous society. |
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