Destruction, Moral Nihilism and the Poetics of Debris in Jia Zhangke's Still Life

Abstract

Jia Zhangke's 2006 digital feature Still Life exhibits two impulses in its creation process: one is moral admonition, the other is aesthetic meditation. Jia's moral preoccupation is mainly mediated through the sound effects while his aesthetic obsession is prominently conveyed through visual spectacles. The aestheticization of the bare materials, as pre-linguistic existence, creates a “poetics of debris” which constantly disrupts and subverts the narrative flow of the film. The poetics of debris exceeds the narrative intention of the displaced, enchanted director but, unexpectedly, brings his social critique to a more profound level.