The semiotic construction of worldview in film: Multimodal variations in Le Samourai, The Killer, and Ghost Dog

Abstract

Using a narrative-semiotic approach, this paper explores some devices used by film to create a worldview and a philosophical approach to identity and action. To achieve this, the paper explores how certain film noir hybrids, which are based on the same prototypical story, modify narrative and stylistic elements to produce different text-worlds. It analyzes a highly influential cinematic text, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai (1967), and discusses some prominent stylistic and thematic elements that have been re-constructed and re-positioned differently in various films that trace their artistic origins to Melville's text. This paper considers two of these films, John Woo's The Killer (1989) and Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog (1999). It examines their commonalities and differences through an analysis of how they: a) dramatize the tension between language (saying) and action (doing); b) encode action through a stylization of physical movement; c) employ camera angle and distance to frame action sequences; d) employ modalities of light and color to qualify the represented action.