Desplechin, Lynch, Antonioni: l’Apocalypse réinventée au cinéma
Desplechin, Lynch, Antonioni

Summary/Abstract: The obvious allusions to the Book of Revelations in the contemporary cinema are less remarquable than the onirical alterations of this Book in the imagination of some great filmmakers, especially Michelangelo Antonioni (L’Eclisse, 1962), David Lynch (Lost Highway, 1995) and more recently Arnaud Desplechin (Un conte de Noël, 2008). There is no link between these films, but a spiritual analogy, concerning their apocalyptic symbolism, beyond the evident difference of their aesthetic. Such a symbolism concerns the violent duality, a topic of these films, which determines not only the action of the script, but the aesthetic and architecture of the film. The myth of the divine Word, or the Only One, irradiates the Book of John. And this myth finds many echoes in these films, revealing the spiritual quest of Antonioni, Lynch and Desplechin. These creators are “poets”, and many great poets, like Rimbaud, are fascinated by the myth of the Beast: mythical incarnation of illusion, and a guilty model for every artist, confronted to the real world. In many ways, these films can be read like a modern “apocalypse”…

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