Bazin and Merleau-Ponty: Film and Its Ontological Bet

Abstract

There is a harmony between André Bazin's and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's approaches to cinema. They both see cinema as a new imperative language to express the being, capable of reflecting on our promiscuity with the world and things. Both realized the ontological bet that the game of imagination contains: the emergence of the image wrapped in a back and forth movement, from things to form, from fact to sense and meaning, and vice versa. The purpose of this article is to discuss Merleau-Ponty's and Bazin's interest in an ontological investigation of the cinema, analyzing their affinities and differences, identifying paths to be explored and affirming a certain idea of cinema.

Toward Production Design Metaphor: Implications of Situated Authorship and Meaning-Making

“…Every environmental element is there for meaningful interplay with the actor. In this sense, Bazin's notion of scenery implies phenomenological vibes, echoing sensibly like Merleau-Ponty (e.g., Bezerra 2017). However, the essence of the camera movement in relation to the setting remains for Bazin capturing rather than participating.…”