Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Archive epidemic: Derrida, von Trier and the anarchivic disposition of cinema

2017; Intellect; Volume: 7; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1386/jsca.7.2.113_1

2042-7905

Pétur Valsson,

Digital Games and Media

Abstract Danish director Lars von Trier has throughout his work explored the aesthetic possibility of the film medium by pushing its technology to the limit and foregrounding its materiality. Transferring filmed material between analogue video and film, he exaggerates deterioration and decay of the moving image in Medea (1988), Riget ( The Kingdom ) (1994–97) and Breaking the Waves (1996). Turning to digital technology in the late 1990s, von Trier explored the new means of generating data in Idioterne ( The Idiots ) (1998) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). In 1994, Jacques Derrida theorized the concept of Archive Fever, a feverish desire for origins, which ultimately leads to destruction of the archival object. Applying Derrida’s concept to von Trier’s filmmaking shows how his films reveal the inherent anarchivic nature of the medium of the moving image.