The Flesh Made Word: Bodily Inscription and Religion in Celine et Julie Vont en Bateau

Mcneil Taylor

doi:10.3390/h7040114

Abstract

In Celine et Julie Vont en Bateau Jacques Rivette works through his discomfort with the theological function of the author, a discomfort stemming from the material effects of authorship on the bodies of his actors. Examples of bodily incision and bruising proliferate throughout the film, part of a process of violent characterization imposed by an authoring demiurge. The film explores several methods of escape from this process, starting with exotic travel and fairy tales, but culminates around repeated allusions to the crucifixion of Christ. The film advances a heretical Christology by positing God as a sadistic author and the wounded body of Christ as the paradigmatic example of being inscribed as a character against one’s will. As this characterization obviously engenders being inscribed in a narrative as well, the structure of the film probes at the notion of both Christianity and narrative cinema as means of escape.

Highlights

Is it possible to create without implicating theology? In the Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin articulates this distinctly modern anxiety: “My thinking is related to theology as blotting pad is related to ink
Vont en Bateau, as Jacques Rivette works through his own discomfort with the theological function of the author, a discomfort stemming from the material effects of authorship on the bodies of his actors
Examples of bodily incision and bruising proliferate throughout the film, part of a process of violent characterization imposed by an authoring demiurge

Summary

Introduction

Is it possible to create without implicating theology? In the Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin articulates this distinctly modern anxiety: “My thinking is related to theology as blotting pad is related to ink. After Celine and Julie meet in a Montmartre park in the opening scene (it is unclear if they already know each other) and begin a spontaneous, playful chase across the neighborhood, Celine moves into Julie’s apartment, and the women sabotage each other’s social connections to the world outside (a process that is an issue of language, as I will demonstrate) They become drawn to a mysterious house, where a chamber drama featuring automaton-like players unfolds on loop, and the women are able to relive the story through magic candies that appear in their mouth after leaving the house. This tradition is perfectly poised to illuminate Rivette’s own ambivalence towards theology, as he frequently invoked dialectics and idealist thought while identifying as a materialist

Overnaming

Exoticism and Flaying

Sacrifice