Ciężkość – lekkość – perswazyjność. Czyli co wynika z organizacji estetycznej filmu „Dwunastu gniewnych ludzi” Sidneya Lumeta

Abstract

The author aims to show that Sidney Lumet’s cinema classic 12 Angry Men (1957) i s not on l y a f i l m a b out p e r s u a s ion (making art the subject of persuasion about something that presents the clash of various attitudes and views), but a l s o a p e r s u a s i ve f i l m (placing an emphasis on persuading the viewer for specific reasons). For the second of these perspectives, non-verbal persuasion is of fundamental importance – implicit, in its immanent essence, because it uses certain narrative techniques and remains in a purposeful relationship with the organisation of its aesthetics. The axis of this kind of organisation is determined by the categories of gravity and lightness, which seem to fundamentally define various aspects of the film, ranging from the weight of the issues discussed to the implications associated with the setting of the drama. Lumet’s work is a model example of a text that methodically engages audiences in an aesthetic-affective game with the help of gravity and lightness, but also gives the game a world-view sense: it shapes beliefs and assessments that weigh not only on viewers’ attitudes towards conflicts that determine the relationship in the film world, but also affect the perception of non-textual reality (not openly making viewers approve the American model of democracy).