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Gif from : Titane directed by Julia Ducournau

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Did you think that I would write nine articles just to finish without explaining why violence is one of the most important theme in cinema ? Obviously, the purpose behind this blog was to try to open your eyes about the omnipresence of violence in cinema. Since cinema still is an industry, violence wouldn't make it to our screens if :

1) There wasn't a public to watch violent movies and enjoy it.
2) There wasn't a space to praise violence.

Indeed, all the movies taken as examples before are either critical success, either box office success (or both). We can also mention that almost every film I talked about got a bunch of prizes, which is a very important part to encourage distributors to choose and spread these movies to the whole world. We also could mention the last two Palme d'Or are two shocking movies which are based on the importance of violence, especially in the modern cinema (which goes in the continuity of the last article). Violence is everywhere in cinema, and it's important to see that focus the movies on the representation of violences is an easy way, but nonetheless impactful, for directors to interest the audience. The importance to show violence is also a way to show the state of the world as artists can see it, and we could think that this is an important part of why violent movies encounter such a success. Maybe the audience is also attracted to this kind of authenticity, which can be seen as the opposite of the cinema where life is idealized and unrealistic.

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Gif from : The Square directed by Ruben Ostlund

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Now that I wrote some things about violence, we could ask if violence has any limits of its benefit for us. From this question also results an other, which is : is there still a place for violence in art in our society ? The artists clearly chose to keep violence into their work and cinema, in which violence could have been abandoned due to the realism and the shock violence could create. On the contrary, some genres specialised them into their capacity to bring violence on our screens (horror movies for example). With the evolution of art, artists eventually thought it as an opportunity to express their deeper sadness and violence. Violence seems to be limitless because artists find, with evolution of art, no more no less than an evolution of violence. The diversity of the means of expression is so a way to influence every kind of person through every kind of sensibility. It seems to be a nonsense to talk about the limits of violence, and this is one thing I wanted to do with my blog : to show that violence is a hardly definable term which can include a lot of ideas, which is meant to keep developing.

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Gif from : A Ghost Story directed by David Lowery

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Before analyzing the power of violence through cinema, we should ask what can we consider as violent. What is violence ? The English dictionary Cambridge says that violence could be defined as "extremely forceful actions that are intended to hurt people or are likely to cause damage". This definition doesn't mention a particular finality, nor a specific form or expression. We can so consider the Hegel thought, who said that the Being, a complex theory he worked on but comparable to the human in its essence, whose development can only be completed by passing through an inevitable suffering. This could means that any kind of violence can be a way for us to complete our inner self. The expression of violence, as hard it can be for us, is a way for us to evolve to a better version of ourselves. The idea behind this is to think violence representation through cinema as a psychological and philosophical need we have to improve what we are. We can say that we essentially need violence and that cinema is a way for us to fill this need. This also questions the form that violence can take, and finally the necessity to show different kinds of violence so everyone can find their need. It's obvious that we don't have the same needs in terms of amount or expression of violence, but it means that violence is a way to comfort us or, on the contrary, to destabilize us by dealing with a bunch of topics.

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Gif from : Stalker directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

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After we tried to talk about a broad-spectrum of violences, we should try to define one that could be the one which could unify all of them. Finally, violence could be resumed by the psychological and philosophical one. Either it is physical or not, the violence eventually ends up with a mind changing. The violence incurs suffering, which leads the character to a reflexion that torments him. We can consider that this situation is a reflection of psychological violence, which is so present with every kind of violence. To keep the track of the blog and to stick with a particular film, we can talk about Stalker directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. This movie adapted from a book is about an infected zone (how ? by what ? we don't know) which constantly changes, full of traps, where we can find a strange room that has the power to grant wishes. The dangerous journey to this room is the perfect occasion to bind violence and philosophical thoughts. Because it is a Tarkovsky movie, Stalker is also full of metaphysical speeches, while characters try to avoid various dangers. We can see that cinema is a perfect way to create situations where characters are faced with their demons, which could be as physical as impalpable. Psychological violence always find its place where there is suffering.

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Gif from : (500) days of Summer directed by Marc Webb

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Is there a more common violence than sentimental violence ? Who never suffers about love ? If cinema has a lot of love stories, we rarely talk about cinema and failed love stories. However, there are some beautiful movies about it. One of the most representative films is (500) days of Summer directed by Marc Webb, which is about the Tom and Summer's break-up. We follow Tom and his depression after the separation, and how he deals with his suffering. Sentimental violence is often lived like a period of mourning for the character, and the universality of it is obviously a great case for catharsis. We all experienced some kind of sentimental violence, love musts be one of the most common, and we can easily understand the character who is suffering. Through catharsis, we can feel a deep sadness and go through the same stages as the movie's character. Like (500) days of Summer, we go from depression to relief and, if the film is a good one, we also feel relieved. The sentimental violence suggests to go through intense emotions and here is all its interest. Movies however don't need to show a whole bunch of emotions and can just be a pure drama to be considered as sentimentally violent movie. If (500) days of Summer finishes with a happy end, we can talk about sentimentally violent movies like Amour by Michael Haneke or Just Don't Think I'll Scream by Frank Beauvais, which are examples of beautiful movies which immerse us into a deep sadness, which can be a beautiful experience by confronting us to distress.

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Gif from : Irréversible directed by Gaspar Noé

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Sexual violence is surely one of the most horrible kind. It is clearly the way to desacralize the body and to make it something sullied. Sexual violence can be expressed by different ways, but the rape is obviously the most extreme one. When we talk about rape and cinema, the best example is Irréversible directed by Gaspar Noé. In this movie, the central scene is the rape of Monica Bellucci's character, which lasts about fifteen minutes. It remembers us that sexual violence is also an unequal violence which affects way more women, and can reflect a reality where the fear of this kind of violence is something women have to deal with everyday. When sexual violence is shown, we can see it as a way to confront us to a reality we all want to ignore and, more important, it is a way for us to face our power to destroy lives or, on the contrary, our fragility. To show sexual violence can be seen as a political choice, as a form of prevention through shock. We can so consider the sexual violence as a kind of violence which has the thinest boundary between cinema and reality. If we want to link it to catharsis, we can see sexual violence as a way to purge our sexual desires by disgusting and traumatizing us.

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Gif from : I, Daniel Blake directed by Ken Loach

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Social violence could be a strange concept. Indeed, we often see violence as something which involves blood, injuries,... but it can be the exact opposite ! The social violence is one of this kind : something that is clearly not as graphic as the physical one, but nonetheless impactful. The social violence is the best represented in the Ken Loach's filmography. Ken Loach is a British director, well known in famous festivals and especially at Cannes Festival. In his movies, we generally can see poor people from the UK and how they deal with their lives. His most famous film musts be I, Daniel Blake, the Golden Palm from the 2016 Cannes Festival. It appears to be the best way to show the daily difficulty to live in an individualistic society and show the loneliness of people who live in the fringes of society. With his cinema, Ken Loach raises awareness among the spectators so they can see different experiences than theirs, and Loach creates a voice for the disadvantaged ones. So, maybe you ask yourselves what is the link with catharsis ? Well, by discovering characters dealing with social problems, we can feel the sadness and the difficulty to live in an unfair world. We eventually feel outraged and want to help the characters. Social violence is so a way to involve the spectators in social problems and to be a protest against inequalities.

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Gif from : Fight Club directed by David Fincher

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When we think about violence, we obviously think about the physical one. Physical violence is linked to many others and we will talk about some of them below. It surely is the best example about catharsis, and we clearly minimize the social role of physical violence representation. For this part, I will take as example an obvious movie : Fight Club. The movie shows different characters who find a loophole through violence and pain itself. We can see that the characters finally free themself from social obligations. An idea finally comes out : is violence a solution ? If we keep talking about Fight Club, the violence is clearly deified and seems to be the answer to our world representation. With physical violence and through identification, the movie takes us through a journey where violence can purge the characters lives, and so ours. This is not just a bodily reflexion, but it also interrogates us about our ethical limits. Can the violence be the solution ? Or is it an easy answer to deeper problems ? However, it surely proves that our need to represent it is a way to bring some controversial ideas and reproved images. Cinema also allows to accentuate the violence by using special and sound effects : the blood flows like water, the punches resonates and maybe, by chance, we will feel relieved.

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Gif from : Scanners directed by David Cronenberg

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Catharsis is a concept considered by Aristotle and is still hardly defined. Nowadays, catharsis is commonly assimilated as a form of purgation of passions through art. The idea behind it is to purposely create intensity into a piece of art in order to evacuate our pulsions. The catharsis obviously can be felt through violence so our inner roughness could be satisfied. It also is a way to confront us to our ethical limits so we can discover and see life with a new filter. With cinema, violence and catharsis are taken to a new level, particularly because of identification which is one of the major feature in classic cinema. The spectator, which identifies himself as the protagonist, can feel the same pain, fear and exaltation and so experiences things he normally can’t. The variety of violence representation with cinema or series can be used for many reasons : to shock, to criticize or to scare, but the meaning of it will always be the catharsis and the need of violence we all have, at different levels, and can’t express in real life. The point of this blog is to show how different can be the violence and to not focus just on physical violence, of which we will however talk, and to see how omnipresent it can be in our art.