“The Postman’s Coming:” La Morte Rouge (soliloquio) and the Limits of Essayistic Thinking

Abstract

Positioning the essay film as a form of cinematic thinking enables a reconsideration of its different modalities, formal operations and philosophical influences. At the same time, it prompts us to reflect on its engagement with those elements of human experience that mark the limits of thought. Taking Víctor Erice’s La Morte Rouge (soliloquio) (2006) as its focus, this paper considers the ways in which Erice’s film explores elements of personal and collective experience that trigger an undoing of thought. What does the film’s rendition of this undoing imply about the nature of cinema? How do we register its effects in the images and sounds that characterize the director’s body of work?