“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
According to Film in Depth. Water and Immersivity in the Contemporary Film Experience, Adriano D’Aloiacinema states that “cinema has recognised that water can visually give matter and meaning to human desires, dreams and secrets, eliciting suspense and fear.” He continues to state that “images and sounds stream on the screen like an inexhaustible flow of water, a ‘mechanical fluidity’ that perfectly expresses the spirit of modern times”. There are many ‘aquatic’ modes of expression and perception in film. The appearance of water on the screen offers several possibilities and inherent meanings. Since ancient times, the element of water has represented the substance that generates life on Earth, and so it’s importance is significant in creating a film.
Water symbolises multiple things depending on the context in which it appears, but most commonly connotes sadness, rejection or despair.Water also represents washing of sins, grief, relief or cleansing. The ability for water to have s many different significant meanings is extraordinary and is interesting to explore. Because rain diminishes sunlight, it creates human emotions of darkness and depression (however this is not always the case). Water 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 or water in general is often use to create a sense of foreboding, or impending disaster. Water is also a substance that can lend itself to symbolise nightmares, hallucinations, depression and trauma.
Over time, contemporary cinema has exploited the capability of water, visually and aurally, to give a “palpable form to human desires and dreams.” Water is evoked in film as a substance that submerges something, and that something may be destined to re-emerge.
“The point is that water is not only a representational substance that effectively visualises and symbolises the characters’ psychic condition, but also a substance in which the film characters’ bodies are immersed or drown together with their troubles.”
Water is also important in narrative flows. It is generally used at the turning point of film, and the turning points of the plot. Usually, water offers a solution to signal the passage to anoth er temporal framework of the events, e.g. a cross-fade before a flashback
“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.”
http://www.acta.sapientia.ro/acta-film/C5/film5-6.pdf
