The Vertigo of the Single Image: From the Classic Narrative “Glitch” to the Post-Cinematic Adaptations of Paintings

Abstract

As a possible cross section of cinematic narratology and the theory of intermediality the following essay assesses some of the effects of foregrounding the single, intermedial image within film. Specific figurations of intermediality that are experienced via the consciousness of single images, or some kind of “imageness” (i.e. as “intermedial references”) are presented as well as the modes in which they can interact with the narrative structure of a film. This interaction ranges from a momentary interference with the narrative structure of a film to disrupting it altogether; it may consist in constituting the gravity centre of a plot, or even in becoming the “canvas” for a palimpsest of narrative modes and narratives

Keywords

• narrativity
• intermediality
• painting and tableau vivant in film
• post-cinema
• lech majewski