The Masks of the Iconic. Cross Perspectives Between the Cinematic Image and the Phenomenology of the Idol by Jean-Luc Marion

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to point out some relations of parallelism between the phenomenology of the idol that Jean-Luc Marion draws in reference to the pictorial painting and the specific features of cinematographic image. The starting point is constituted by the common belonging of both kinds of donation to the category of that which Marion calls “saturated phenomenon”, that is, that kind of appearance that happens with such a degree of intensity to the intuition that saturates all reflection and deactivates the rational power of the concepts. In the light of this, some aspects are examined such as the perceptive autonomy of the cinematographical image, the showing of the “unseen” aspects of the elements accorded to the film vision, the determination of the cinema screen as a space reserved for a specific type of phenomenal appearance or the necessity of repeated contemplations of the same film whose visibility is truly inexhaustible.