Some research I have done is:
“The pupil is made of water.” Aristotle, De Anima, III
“The true eye of the earth is water.” – Gaston Bachelard, L’Eau et les rêves, 1942
My project is an investigation through a sequence of shots of the use of water in film. I have studied the importance of water in film, and what it conveys. I chose this as a topic because water is interesting to film, and its sound is engaging. I have researched the idea of rain, puddles, and water.
Water symbolises multiple things depending on the context in which it appears, but most commonly connotes sadness, submerging, rejection or despair.Water also represents washing of sins, grief, relief or cleansing. The ability for water to have many different significant meanings is interesting to explore. There are many modes of expression and perception in film, and water is one of them.
- Rain symbolizes multiple things depending on the context in which it appears, but most commonly connotes sadness, rejection or despair. Because rain diminishes sunlight, it creates human emotions of darkness and depression. Rain is often used metaphorically in literature to represent discontent or to invoke a forlorn mood. Many films use rainfall to create heightened drama and a sense of foreboding, symbolizing human tears
- As a foreshadowing technique, rain or pouring rain is often use to create a sense of foreboding, or impending disaster.
- It can also be used to create the impression of an overwhelming deluge, or irresistible force.
- Or it is useful for just providing a dreary back drop which can subtly endear us to a character or circumstance (we can empathize with the cat stuck out in the rain for example).
- Rain means change
- Danger OR relief, new things coming, old washing away
“Images and sounds stream on the screen like an inexhaustible flow of water, a ‘mechanical fluidity’ that perfectly expresses the spirit of modern times”
“Water makes the screen a fluid and interconnecting threshold between two places, between here and there, between present and past, conscious and unconscious, waking and sleeping, life and death.”
-Film in Depth. Water and Immersivity in the Contemporary Film Experience, Adriano D’Aloiacinema
