Film Studies Publications
Title
Deleuzian sensation and Maurice Jaubert's score for L'Atalante
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2009
Volume
9
Issue
2
Journal
Studies in French Cinema
First Page
97
URL with Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/sfc.9.2.97_1
Last Page
110
Abstract
In this article I advance a new methodology for the analysis of film music, one which uses philosophical concepts drawn from the work of Gilles Deleuze as a way to create a dialogue between music and film theories. The practical application of this will be the analysis of Maurice Jaubert's score for Jean Vigo's L'Atalante. I will suggest that while film music is often understood as sound, it is best perhaps understood as pure sensation, a concept that Deleuze puts forth in his study of the painter Francis Bacon. In this work, Deleuze draws from biology, by which he means the establishment of precognitive meaning. By referring to film music in this way, I will then be able to place it on a common footing with the film's other elements, allowing a truly interdisciplinary discourse to take place.
