Annotated Bibliography

In my essay, I propose to write about The Intruder by Claire Denis.

I will discuss Denis cinematic rendering of the body as a sensual
and physical presence in the film and how this relates to the viewers
direct, bodily experience of viewing such a film. I will do this through
examination of texts that speak about the movie watching
experience and the impact of the synesthesia on this.
I am interested in how physical, human flesh is portrayed in
cinema, particularly with reference to the vulnerability and the
otherness of the depiction of the body itself. I will discuss the
intimacy, and the nature of the physical, performative body in
cinema. I intend to further this investigation with references to
portrayals of the body in media out with just cinema such as
performance art. With reference to The Intruder by Jean Luc Nancy
(the text that the film it was adapted from) and the performance
artist Orlan, I will explore ideas of the body and otherness and the
effect that this has upon us as physical, multisensory viewers. By
combining research about the body on screen, and the body of the
viewer watching the screen, I will discuss how we project ourselves
onto and into films and demonstrate that it is impossible to simply
be a passive viewer under the influence of a gaze.

Ausburg, Tanya. Orlans Performative Transformations of

Subjectivity in The Ends of Performance. Peggy Phelan and

Jill Lane (ed). New York: New York University Press. 1998.
149-65. Print.
This article discusses the performance artist Orlan and her
works that involve having plastic surgery procedures done on
herself whilst having the whole operation documented by film or
photography. The article talks about the theatre of Orlan which is
really a theatre of the body where we discuss themes such as
memory, self-perception and ownership. This text discusses Orlans
character that was not created deliberately by the artist, but that
grew into existence through her performative works. The text
discusses how the external and internal have a kind of dialogue that
affects ones own self-perception, and this reminds me of the
themes in The Intruder. This is a useful and reliable text because
it makes reference to Simon de Beauvoir and Foucault as well as
Feminist and Queer theories.
Martin, Adrian. "Claire Denis and the Cinema of the Body." In
Screening the Past A Peer Reviewed Journal of Screen
History, Theory and Criticism.
La Trobe University, Australia. 27 Nov. 2006. Web. 29 Nov.
2011.
This is an article that is part of an online journal from La Trobe
University in Australia; the fact that a university publishes it makes
the online source reliable. Adrian Martin, who is a film and arts
writer and Head of Film and Television Studies at Monash University,
wrote this article, which talks directly about many of the themes in
Denis works with reference to many of her films, but with particular
emphasis on The Intruder. Through quoting lines from her films,
and analysis of the filmic elements of some of her works, Martin
explores his ideas about movement, mood and texture in Denis
films. He argues that the bodies that he is talking about in her work
are not really the characters, but simply human flesh and skin that
is used like a landscape, and manipulated throughout the films.
Overall this is a useful article as not only does it discuss The
Intruder but also many other films that I have not seen and

identifies running themes in Denis works. It is also useful because it

discusses the films independently, aside from the texts by Nancy; in
fact it only mentions the Intruder text at the very end of the
article, which means that rest of the text is dedicated to the filmic
techniques and themes in the movies themselves.

Morrey, Douglas. Listening and Touching, Looking and

Thinking: The Dialogue in Philosophy and Film between
Jean-Luc Nancy and Claire Denis in European Film Theory.
Temenuga Trifonova (ed.). London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
This article discusses the relationship between Jean-Luc Nancy
and Claire Denis who have had a recurring dialogue in their works
over the last decade. Morrey discusses their works both individually
and together. In his exploration of both Nancy and Denis, the author
discusses a current shift in film theory towards an understanding
that the whole body, and all of its senses and emotions have a role
in our understanding and viewing of cinema. The text discusses how
both Nancy and Denis describe the sensual experience of the body
in the world, as well as the material incarnations of this. This article
discusses a wide selection of works and ideas from both Nancy and
Denis and is supported by quotations from Martine Beugnet. Overall
it is a useful article because it directly compares both of the works
and highlights the key themes in both of them. It discusses the role
of this kind of partnership

Nancy, Jean Luc. The Intruder in Corpus. New York:

Fordham University Press, 2008. Print
The Intruder is an autobiographical story in which Nancy
reflects upon his personal experience of having a heart transplant.
The text uses the intrusion of the transplant as a metaphor to
describe to explore the ideas of body, strangeness, identity and
otherness. Nancy writes about the implications of the surgery in a
very intimate way, he is up-front about his worries concerning the

morality of the need to have someone else die in order for him to
live. The text itself is almost sensuous in nature; it has a bodily
weight to it much like the film it inspired. This text is key in
understanding its namesake film, even though the story is not the
same in the film, many of the ideas and messages are, and the text
makes the film easier to understand.

Sobchack, Vivian Carol. What My Fingers Knew: The

Cinesthetic subject, or Vision in the flesh in Carnal
Thoughts, Embodiment And Moving Image Culture. Berkeley:
University of California Pr, 2004. Print.
This chapter discusses the key role that our bodies play in our
experience of viewing a film. She emphasizes the corporeal, and the
emotionally felt engagements with the film by describing her own
personal experience watching films. Through analysis of films that
provoke such feelings, in particular The Piano (the experience of
which she discusses throughout the chapter), Sobchack explores her
opinion that the analytical and intellectual understanding of a film
comes secondary to the primary, visceral, bodily experience of
cinema. This text shows how the cinematic experience is always
accompanied by a whole host of sensations, and how our bodies are
not just physical objects but also multisensory subjects. The text is
based around quotations from Steven Sharivo and Laura Marks,
overall it encompasses many of the themes I am interested in.