ABSTRACT

The sudden flourishing of reflections on light, nature and poetry that occurred from the mid-80s onwards in the cinema of Jean-Luc Godard, Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, could not fail to surprise. Between their reputation as Brechtian, materialist filmmakers and these seemingly apolitical reflections, developed in conjunction with their appeal to Hölderlin’s “idealist” poetry, there seems to be an insurmountable rift. By situating their aesthetics in the broader framework known as “aesthetic modernity”, i.e. art and philosophy of art since the end of the 18^th century (cf. J.M. Schaeffer, J. Rancière), I demonstrate how films such as Der Tod des Empedokles (1986) and Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro (1991), not so much exhibit a shift to conservatism with this “sudden” interest in nature and poetry, but, rather, the manifestation of a Romantic contradiction characteristic of modern aesthetics. In a period of disillusionment, these “Brechtian” filmmakers increasingly turned to a German literary and philosophical tradition that praised the “revelationist” potential of poetry, while they, simultaneously and still with revolutionary fervour, reflected on Germany’s troubled political past and present. I will argue that we can understand this alignment of revolution and revelationism from the perspective of their indebtedness to an antimodern worldview that perceives of the modern age as being in decline, to which these filmmakers oppose a utopian striving towards a “new world”, captured in a Romantic discourse of light and vision.

摘要

从 80 年代中期开始，让-吕克·戈达尔、丹妮尔·惠耶和让-玛丽·施特劳布的电影中对光、自然和诗歌的反思突然蓬勃发展，这不能不让人感到惊讶。在他们作为布莱希特式的唯物主义电影制作人的名声与这些看似无关政治的思考之间，连同他们对荷尔德林“唯心主义”诗歌的吸引力一起发展起来，似乎存在着无法逾越的裂痕。通过将他们的美学置于被称为“美学现代性”的更广泛框架中，即自 18 世纪末以来的艺术和艺术哲学（参见 JM Schaeffer，J. ^Rancière），我展示了Der Tod des Empedokles等电影如何(1986) 和Allemagne annee 90 neuf zéro（1991），与其说是对自然和诗歌的这种“突然”兴趣表现出向保守主义的转变，不如说是现代美学浪漫主义矛盾特征的表现。在幻想破灭的时期，这些“布莱希特式”电影制作人越来越多地转向德国文学和哲学传统，这些传统和哲学传统赞扬诗歌的“启示主义”潜力，同时他们仍然带着革命热情，反思德国过去和现在陷入困境的政治。我将争辩说，我们可以从他们欠一个反现代世界观的角度来理解革命和启示主义的这种结合，这种世界观认为现代时代正在衰落，这些电影制作人反对这种乌托邦式的“新世界”努力，捕获在光和视觉的浪漫话语中。