Violence, heartbreak and detachment in the cinema of Amant Escalante
The bastards | Amat Escalante | 2008, Heli | Amat Escalante | 2013
Christian León christian.leon@uasb.edu.ec

Abstract:

Through the analysis of The bastards (2008) and Heli (2013), this article seeks to characterize the forms of representation of violence in the cinema of Mexican director Amat Escalante. Using concepts such as film violence (Kendrick), poetics of violence (Mongin), torn image (Taccetta), aesthetics of detachment (Podalsky), an analysis of the discourse of the films is carried out with the purpose of identifying the narrative and figurative structures as well as the forms of interpellation of the spectators. Through work with natural actors, filming in real settings and a contemplative language, Amat Escalante’s cinema opens a path for the representation of violence characterized by complexity, contextualization, sensoriality and detachment. From this analysis, a conceptualization of the staging of violence is proposed, an alternative to the normalization and spectacularization present in dominant television and cinema.

Keywords: Violence| cinema| fiction| Mexico

This article is, for the time being, only available in Spanish: Violencia, desgarramiento y desapego en el cine de Amat Escalante


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Volumen 14 | Nº 3

NOVEMBER 2024
November 2024 - February 2025

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