On Cinematic Voracity: Cannibalism, Masochism, and Unbearable Images

Abstract

The contemporary theory of cinema of discomfort shows that unbearable images make us feel and think about le dispositif and our gaze itself, its sensual and engaged features. With an example of Caniba, an experimental documentary about a cannibalistic murderer, I point out its self-reflexivity and relations between cannibalism and cinematic masochism. Reflecting on Freud’s, Lacan’s, Deleuze’s work as well as and McCormack’s concept of ‘cinemasochism’, I extract the latter’s sensual dimension of iconophagy – the process of devouring images and letting to be devoured.