Cycnos | Volume 29.2 - Le Méchant à l'écran. Les paradoxes de l'indispensable figure du mal | II Esthétique et idéologie du mal contemporain

Résumé :

Broadcast in the USA in 1996, Profit is a provocative series whose poor ratings account for its very short life. The main character upon which it is based is Jim Profit, a yuppie whose goal is to try and become the focal point of the company he works in, whatever the – legally and morally reprehensible – means. This increasing control is made possible through a fiction utterly devoted to the villain ; he masters the series' meaning because he stands at the chore of each of its units (from a single shot to an entire episode). The subversive vision of the social order is in fact paralleled with the body of laws that govern the moving images and their significance/content (that is the power struggles within a powerful corporation). The metaphorical use of this specular scheme within the universe it informs prompts us to reflect upon the ontological status of the series (as a mutant, novelistic version of the movie) and then, by mimetic extension, upon its political dimension.

Mots-clés : evil, villain, corporate world, demon, film, Adrian Pasdar, power, Profit, TV series, time, thought

Date de publication : 2018-07-23