Shit happens on the big screen: faecal motifs in contemporary film

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyse various excremental motifs and their functions in selected contemporary films. Drawing on concepts such as Julia Kristeva’s abject, Mary Douglas’s taboo and Mikhail Bakhtin’s grotesque body, the authors demonstrate that dirt in the form of excrement holds metaphorical and symbolic potential in cinematic representations. Faecal tropes selected for discussion range from the use of excrement as a means of humiliation (The Help, Green Book, Kornblumenblau) or resistance (Silent Grace, Hunger) to an understanding of defecation as an ideal and peaceful act (Jarhead, Halkaa) or as a trigger for culturally conditioned disgust (Death at a Funeral, Daddy Day Care), to the use of faecal matters as a demarcation line between ‘us’ and ‘them’ in the world of the future (Uncanny, The Platform) or as a productive substance entangled with multiple life forms (The Martian). Since filmic texts can be regarded as a taxonomic representing of faecal motifs that have received considerably little scholarly attention, the discussed examples do not exhaust the topic, but lay the foundation for more detailed analysis in the future.