얀 스반크마이예르 작품에서 나타나는 신체(身體) 표현 연구

Human Body in Jan Svankmajer’s Film

Films are about humans. Most of commonly viewed epic and narrative films we watch in theaters are stories about humans. Film directors communicate and share their perspectives and world views by sculpturing human histories, lives, and psychology. As such, ‘humans’ are the central ingredient and pigment that constitutes films. Humans are consisted of two fundamental constructs. One is an invisible mental construct such as emotion or mind and the other is a tangible physical construct. Most of films utilize the latter, that is, physical body, in order to reveal the former, that is, human emotions and psychology. This is an idealistic perspective where we see human body simply as a means to deliver our mind, which is based on a strong belief or myth that such an attempt is what makes films artistic constructs. The majority of film directors, claiming for the superiority of mind over body, believe that the expression of human mind through body is indeed a genuine approach to the fundamental nature of human world. Contrary to this, there is a film director who realizes his materialistic view on humans of unique characteristics in his films. Jan Svankmajer is one of the film directors who depicts humans as a film material by the use of puppet animations, stop motions, and live action techniques. This paper examines how he depicts and utilizes human bodies in his films and analyzes the messages that he wants to communicate through human bodies in aesthetic and philosophical dimensions.