Cycnos | Volume 28.2 - Le cinéma américain face à ses mythes : une foi incrédule | Du western

Résumé :

This article deals with the variations on the mythical figure of American outlaw Jesse James in Andrew Dominik’ The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) in the light of Raymond Bellour’s authoritative theories on western film as well as his more recent study of cinema as a hypnotic or “hypnagogic” experience, as propounded in his recent study Le corps du cinema (2009). Following a brief survey of the genealogy of Jesse James on screen since the 1920s, this article discusses the tension between historiography, mythology and aesthetics in Dominik’s film. By looking at the many stylistic processes employed by the filmmaker in his quest to trigger a hypnagogic response in the spectator, it concludes that The Assassination offers a way to experience mythography as reverie.

Mots-clés : Raymond Bellour, Andrew Dominik, James, hypnagogy, mythography, post-classical cinema, western.

Date de publication : 2015-12-04