STUDIES AND RESEARCH

Some Other Sources of Film Topology

In researching film topology, the author’s starting point is the understanding of topology, which he labels as spatioceptical and spatiogramatical.

In the space of nature and in the space of thought, every event is necessarily topographical, because every object has its dramaturgic role. The event is tied to the object, to space, to time and to causality, which, in film, has to be accompanied by Jung’s synchronicity, which, in turn, makes it grammatic space. Topography is the relationship between the object and space, the relationship in which changes of position require time, but when there is no time, i. e. in a state of nonverbal calmness, there are invisible threads of tension, attraction and repulsion between objects.

The topographical language is one of nonverbal languages used to express feelings, relationships between people, animals and objects as well as some of the qualities of their personalities. It is a natural and mostly unconscious language that orignates from the deepest syntaxic structures and which is image-based and spatial. It is only when it is taken into consideration, in life and in film, with the look, mimic, gesture, body stance, the aural qualities of speech, etc., that a message can really be felt. This language has its own topographic metaphor, as well as its own grammar and geometry.

In the explanation of his standpoints, the author uses numerous expamples based on the work of Branko Veletić Eliptičnost/slikovitost/prostor-nost/govornost/poetičnost (Elipticalness/Image/Spatiality/Speech/Poeticism) 1991; Riječnik pjesništva Jure Kaštelana (Jure Kaštelan’s Dictionary of Poeticism) 1996, which he, in part, expands on into various fields of human endeavor.

Mihovil Pansini