| Abstract [eng] |
This thesis examines the cinema of Liliana Cavani and its reinterpretation of cultural myths. The research objects are two films by the Italian director: “The Cannibals” (1970) and “Where Are You? I'm Here!” (1993). The aim of this work is to investigate how the functions and meanings of mythical figures (Antigone, Tiresias, Helen, Faust) change across media transformations, to describe the intermedial dialogue created by this process, and to evaluate its impact on the works overall meaning. The research is grounded in Gérard Genette’s concept of transtextuality, integrated with insights and tools from intermediality theory. The first chapter analyzes the evolution of the myth of Antigone in Western art, drama, and cinema, highlighting its transformation from the image of a submissive daughter to a symbol of political resistance. The second chapter examines the film “The Cannibals” as an adaptation (hypertext) of the hypotext of Sophocles tragedy. Attention is focused on the paradox of seeing in dystopian Milan, where the state surveillance machine forces citizens to practice “tactical blindness”, while Antigone and Tiresias-Christ represent the “seers”. As myths transform, the painting tradition is also overturned, while Christian symbols are utilized to expose a meaningless, “aestheticized” holiness. In this film, Antigone’s resistance is revealed not through verbal language, but through silence and the “pure gesture” – the tactile ritual of burying the dead, which disrupts societal apathy and provokes collective action. The third chapter reviews the evolution of the image of Helen in literature and art – from the ancient phantom to the 19th-century femme fatale – as well as the development of the Faust legend. The fourth chapter analyzes the film “Where Are You? I'm Here!”, which reinterprets the myths of Faust and Helen. In this film, the love story of two deaf young people is portrayed as resistance to phonocentric assimilation. Faust’s “bargain” is understood here as a refusal to conform to the requirements of the hearing majority, while the figure of Helen suggests the possibility of authentic “corporeal expression”. The film's visual structure and the “weaving” of various media into its aesthetics allow for a reflection on (mis)communication. In Cavani’s films “The Cannibals” and “Where Are You? I'm Here!”, the rewriting of myths forms a conceptual dichotomy of the body as both object and subject, based on the sensory experiences of sight and hearing. In the space of “The Cannibals”, the body functions as an object of totalitarian manipulation and resistance. Meanwhile, in “Where Are You? I'm Here!”, the body is emancipated and becomes a meaning-producing subject. In both works, the boundaries of traditional, verbal (mis)communication are deconstructed, and the body itself emerges as a universal language that creates authentic connection and meaning. |
