While heteronormativity continues to permeate nearly all threads of
the socio-cultural fabric, several early twenty-first-century German
films offer insight into how we might challenge that dominance and
disrupt its linear construction of time. Examining the fluidity of
time in eight contemporary films of the Berlin School, Untimely
Bodies, Untimely Aesthetics foregrounds how queer conceptualizations
of temporality can engage notions of subjectivity, relationality, and
intimacy in visual representations. Each film depicts figures that
grapple with an unattainable desire for connection, placed in
landscapes shaped by hegemonic heteronormative intimacies, and a
linear temporal organization of life that conforms to mainstream,
traditional rhythms, and milestones. Simone Pfleger proposes a new
model for viewing non-normative relationality and intimacies, using
the concept of untimeliness as an analytical framework for examining
content and aesthetics. In these films, untimeliness provides an
alternative to the romanticization of progress by charting how the
filmic figures understand themselves and relate to one another in
various spheres: work, love, sex, home, family, and self. Ultimately,
Pfleger shows how the texts uncover a temporary promise of breaking
free from restrictive social structures, even as they make clear that
this schism cannot and should not be permanent. By proposing time as a
critical lens through which to investigate our relationships and
intimacies, Untimely Bodies, Untimely Aesthetics offers a new way to
think about film and encourages moviegoers to turn the analysis back
toward themselves and their own desires, expectations, assumptions,
and adherence to or deviation from normative narratives in their own
lives.
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Temporality, Relationality, and Intimacy in the Cinema of the Berlin School
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780228019145
Publisert
2023
Utgiver
ACP - McGill Queen's University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter