Martin Lefebvre wrote
(and I completely agree with him):
*All indices and symbols must have
their share of iconicity (symbols also have their share of
indexicality).*
and
*Now, to say that "all" film images are icons (or
indices) is really to say very little, and very little as far as the
study
of the cinema (or even the study of the cinematic experience) goes.*
and
*Icon, Indices and Symbols are not things, they are ways or relating to
things and the world -- and this is always context-dependent.*
and
*A whole film MAY become a sign
of something (for instance, this is what happens when critics see a film
as
mysogynist or as feminist); or something in a film (e.g. a movement, a
look, clothing, a prop, a narrative pattern, music, or a collection
thereof, etc. -- ad infinitum) MAY become signs.*
I agree with that, and I think that we could refer here to the classical
barthes' _Third sense_, where he stressed the fact that in an image
there are 3 levels of sense (informative, symbolic and a third one that
we could call iconic, to which corresponded communication, signification
and significance). The fact is that the first two leves are not
exhaustive, because there is always something vague, difficult to
express, even not intentional, which opens the image to the infinite of
language (that is, to the infinite possibilities of new meanings,
throughout ages, places, contexts).
The he writes:
*But when I watch a fiction film (say, _The Big
Sleep_) I don't think of using it as a sign that Humprey Bogart (or
Philip
Marlow) exist.*
He expresses very clearly one of my preoccupation with face (and body)
on the screen as sign of something (else): of course the face of Bogart
can be understood as a symbol, as satisfying the second barthesian
level, but I wonder if this face functions as an icon, just because it
is not sign of the existence of Bogart's face, but it opens this face to
alterity, meant as possibility of conceiving this face as other from
itself, as its *shadow*, to quote Lévinas.
I thank M.L. for his words, very clear and useful to my doubts
Francesca De Ruggieri
Ph.D in Theory of Language and Sciences of Signs
University of Bari
Italy
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