Scènes d'esprit : Beloved [Jonathan Demme, 1998 ; Toni Morrison, 1987]

In 1998, Jonathan Demme adapted for screen Toni Morrison’s critically acclaimed novel Beloved. This new cinematographic itinerary proves complex and problematic as the director chooses to reconfigure the heroine’s agonizing journey through memory and to freedom in times of slavery in a violent and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Paquet-Deyris, Anne-Marie
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Language:Français
Published: 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
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Summary:In 1998, Jonathan Demme adapted for screen Toni Morrison’s critically acclaimed novel Beloved. This new cinematographic itinerary proves complex and problematic as the director chooses to reconfigure the heroine’s agonizing journey through memory and to freedom in times of slavery in a violent and non linear manner. His incursion into a haunted territory of African American history leads him to make radical choices such as selecting at once the fantastic genre and structuring his film around numerous flashbacks. The effect is gripping, but also stifling and disorientating for the spectator. His aesthetic approach, at times debatable, seems to redefine the moral implications of Sethe’s murder of her children and the inscription of distress and of the modes of survival on screen.