Open AccessDeconstructing Depth: Proximity and Contemplation in Déjà Vu
Author(s) -
Matt Denny
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
film-philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.112
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1466-4615
DOI - 10.3366/film.2018.0075
Subject(s) - postmodernism , aesthetics , dismissal , reading (process) , hermeneutics , contemplation , movie theater , action (physics) , hierarchy , epistemology , sociology , philosophy , art , art history , linguistics , law , physics , quantum mechanics , political science
This article interrogates the persistence of critical frameworks informed by depth-models of hermeneutics, and the repercussions the equation of “depth” with meaningfulness has for the appreciation of the “shallow” aesthetics of post-classical action cinema. Oppositions such as depth/surface, body/mind, and proximity/distance associated with a hermeneutics of depth are not neutral, but rather exist in a “violent hierarchy” ( Derrida, 2010 , p.39). This ensures that works or styles that foreground surface are automatically deemed to be meaningless. One influential example of this logic is Fredric Jameson's dismissal of postmodern superficiality in favour of modernist depth. In contrast, this article will explore alternative models of postmodern superficiality. Taking up Catherine Constable's reading of Linda Hutcheon, I will endeavour to demonstrate the benefits of adopting a postmodern critical perspective when engaging with texts that resist or problematise depth-models. Through a close reading of a key sequence in Tony Scott's Déjà Vu (2006), I will explore the ways in which the film reworks the stylistic conventions of action cinema in its promotion of engaged closeness over critical distance.