The project Film and Death: Film Philosophy as a Meditation on Death, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), questions whether a film needs to show death to make us think about it. Led by Susana Viegas, a researcher at IFILNOVA, the study seeks to understand how cinema, through images, time, duration, waiting, absence, or repetition, can make our finite condition perceptible. Initiated in June 2023, the project has a duration of five years.
In the film Cléo de 5 à 7, by Agnès Varda, the character Cléo awaits the results of a medical examination. Although her death is not shown, the anxiety of waiting and the passage of time make the possibility of loss increasingly present. "Death is never shown, but Cléo's wait and the passage of time make the possibility of death ever more present. This presence, in turn, transforms into an attitude of confrontation, not just fear," explains Susana Viegas.
The project focuses on how the experience of watching a film can make our own finitude perceptible, introducing the concept of the 'death-image'. This idea goes beyond simple representation, making us think about death through the duration of a shot, absence, repetition, or the sensation of something disappearing.
The research considers films as "objects and agents of thought," analyzing elements such as shot duration, framing, or camera movements to understand how these choices shape our experience and what they allow us to think about time and finitude. This approach is crucial, as we cannot experience our own death, but we can confront the idea through other experiences, such as cinema.
The project also develops the concept of the 'death-image' and explores the relationships between cinema and death through tools like the Film and Death: A Conceptual Knowledge Map, which visualizes connections between films, filmmakers, concepts, and themes. This map functions as a "conceptual laboratory" for exploring the knowledge produced.
Beyond academia, the research seeks to engage with the public through the cycle Falar sobre a morte (nunca matou ninguém), promoted by the Goethe-Institut Portugal, and the podcast Film and Death Talks. These initiatives use cinema as a starting point for conversations about mortality and finitude.
In summary, thinking about death through cinema can mean paying more attention to time, absence, and memory, thereby highlighting the very experience of being alive. As Susana Viegas summarizes, "a memento mori can thus easily become a memento vivere."
