Screening the Face

Paul Coates presents the face in film as a place where transformations begin, above all under the influence of modernity's problematization of the reading of faces, but also of age-old myths. The book considers where and how the face becomes either a mask, or what Lacanian theory would term 'the Thi [...]
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Paul Coates presents the face in film as a place where transformations begin, above all under the influence of modernity's problematization of the reading of faces, but also of age-old myths. The book considers where and how the face becomes either a mask, or what Lacanian theory would term 'the Thing', in a perspective informed by film theory, anthropology, philosophy and theology. Although its key text is Ingmar Bergman's Persona, it analyzes a wide range of other films, primarily European and American, including Cat People, The Dark Knight, Dekalog 1, Eyes Wide Shut, The Face of Another, Greed, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Triumph of the Will, and various works by Chris Marker. The book investigates the face's modifications by allegory, the close-up, doubling, horror, stardom, veiling and war; the significance of its representation in profile and three-quarter-face; and the urge to mask or freeze its vulnerable, ever-changing nature.