DELEUZE AND CINEMA

Deleuze, Guattari and the art of opposing dominant structures of meaning

In this essay the author suggests that the »art« of the Hong Kong action director and choreographer Yuen Woo Ping should be observed in terms of a subversive function of art, i.e. — referring to Gilles Deleuze’s and Felix Guattari’s concept — a deterritorializing function of art. The focus is on Yuen’s kung-fu comedies as examples of the »art« of enabling female characters and undermining patriarchal identity. The main argument is that these, in principle commercial films -- that can not be characterized as art films — should be observed and examined in terms of their deterritorializing function, or better said, in term of their capability to formulate an enabling femininity image. In that sense, the emphasis is on the narrative representation of femininity and distribution of power. Especially pertinent are Deleuze’s and Guattari’s concepts of deterritorialization, emergence/transformation, body without organs, and line of escape. Each of these concepts alludes to non-hierarchical two-way relations of different shapes that influence identity policies. The essay suggests that the »art« (of specific Hong Kong films) is interdependent with certain sign regimes. When discussing Yuen Woo Ping’s authorial universe and opposing territorial regimes, this also implies opposing structures of meaning determined by cultural fixations, standards, and rules which govern the construction of a repressive femininity image, based on for example Freudian assumption that women are passive and men active. Opposing these fixations also includes the relationship between cinematic gender representation and narration. However, it has to be pointed out that narrative representation is not only determined by the process of film narration but also by a specific mode of cultural expression that sends information to film plot.

Saša Vojković