Abstract

Roland Barthes defines myth as a semiological system with “the task of giving an historical intention a natural justification, and making contingency appear eternal.” I link his ideas to Jean-Louis Baudry’s apparatus theory, which argues that the mechanisms of filmmaking and exhibition forge “an ‘organic’ unity” between a film’s essentially disparate images. Finally, I examine the ways in which films can deconstruct myth by increasing in Barthes’s terms “the abstractness of the concept and the arbitrariness of the sign,” a goal toward which Luis Buñuel’s 1974 film The Phantom of Liberty admirably strives.

Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.