ABSTRACT

The work of Kathryn Bigelow is often discussed in terms of her technical and stylistic achievements. Relatively little has been written about her characterisation, perhaps because her protagonists tend to be less than sympathetic – enigmatic to the point of illegibility and driven in ways which can be hard to fathom. In this article, I will argue that what Bigelow’s protagonists have in common is an obsessive quality that also haunts her filmmaking; that the themes at the heart of her films are often reflected in the aesthetic and structural strategies she employs. In particular, I will explore how her use of point of view and close-up highlights her characters’ obsessive qualities; how her use of surveillance and mediated vision creates a recurring atmosphere of paranoia; how an uncanny stillness at the centre of her jumpy, frenetic camera work emphasises the single-minded focus of her protagonists; and how framing and narrative structure complement performances to create the fascinating, if at times infuriating, inscrutability that characterises so many of Bigelow’s protagonists. I will thus seek to define the poetics of obsession that pervade Bigelow’s filmmaking, connecting visual language, thematic content, and characterisation.

摘要

凯瑟琳·毕格罗 (Kathryn Bigelow) 的作品经常以她的技术和风格成就来讨论。关于她的性格描写的文章相对较少，也许是因为她的主角往往缺乏同情心——神秘到难以辨认的程度，并且以难以理解的方式被驱使。在这篇文章中，我将论证毕格罗的主角们的共同点是一种强迫性的品质，这种品质也困扰着她的电影制作。她电影的核心主题通常反映在她采用的美学和结构策略中。我将特别探索她的视角和特写镜头如何突出角色的强迫症；她对监视和中介视觉的使用如何造成反复出现的偏执气氛；在她神经质的中心是多么不可思议的寂静，狂热的摄影作品强调了主人公的一心一意；以及框架和叙事结构如何与表演相辅相成，以创造出迷人的，有时令人气愤的，难以捉摸的特点，这是毕格罗众多主角的特征。因此，我将试图定义贯穿毕格罗电影制作的痴迷诗学，将视觉语言、主题内容和特征联系起来。