Other theorists besides Ferdinand de Saussure, such as the Algerian Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser (1918–1990) and the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901–1981), argued that the way cinema conveys meaning is, in essence, linguistic (57/31)1. In the same way as in linguistics, the relation between the signified and the signifier depends on social and cultural context.
Similarly, the Russian film director and theorist Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948) maintained that the minimal unit in cinema can carry meaning (a signified), but that the combination of two minimal units (shots) can produce a “concept” (58/39)2. He suggested that the successive arrangement of two shots—for example, an eye and water—would generate the concept of “crying”; a mouth and a baby would suggest “scream”; and so on.
Furthermore, this combination of concepts gives the narrative structure the characteristics of a “system of comparisons” between units within the sequential structure.
- 31
Despite Metz’s critique of the claim that film constitutes a langue, many theorists in the tradition of Saussure, Louis Althusser and Jacques Lacan maintain that all cinematic meaning is essentially linguistic and that the relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary, conventional and both culturally determined and culturally relative.
> Language > Receptor)
Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings
by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen
↩︎ - 39
The point is that the copulation-perhaps we had better say the combination of two hieroglyphs of the simplest series is regarded not as their sum total but as their product, i.e. as a value of another dimension, another degree: each taken separately corresponds to an object but their combination corresponds to a concept. The combination of two ‘representable’ objects achieves the representation of somethmg that cannot be graphically represented.
For example: the representation of water and of an eye signifies ‘to weep’, the representation of an ear next to a drawing of a door means ‘to listen’,
a dog and a mouth mean ‘to bark’
a mouth and a baby mean to ‘scream’
a mouth and a bird mean ‘to sing’
a knife and a heart mean ‘sorrow’, and so on
> Language> Images
Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings
by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen ↩︎
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