Tony Cairns

Art and Film. Two Figures (2): Closure. Illustration 1: 'Exotica', 1994, film; Atom Egoyan, director; Paul Sarossy, cinematographer; Mia Kirshner, actress; Bruce Greenwood, actor. A striptease artist presses herself against the body of an obsessive, estranged customer: ' He's a very particular case ... [she says] ... he's just so fucked up!'. Her encroachment into the right half of the frame leaves a gap (left) where the performer and object of male fantasy should be [compare Illustration 2]: Illustration 2: 'We've always had this understanding ... I need him for certain things, and he needs me'. Their overlapping silhouettes (Illustration 1) combine in a  closure effect, that seems to encapsulate the intense emotional consonance of these two damaged characters. Illustration 3: 'In Bed, The Kiss', 1892, painting; Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec. A separation of lights (bodies and bedding) and darks (hair an...

Art and Film. Two Figures (1): Silhouettes. The ancient tradition of making a silhouette has a paradoxical effect: it unifies and divides. Its outline generates a tension between the active (black) and passive (white) components of an image.  Illustration 1. Illustration 1 shows a common example: an optical illusion. Two facial profiles exist in perfect symmetry, providing they are seen as the positive 'figure'. When viewed as a negative 'ground' the edges of a vase emerge. Each form is dependent upon a mental configuration, or 'gestalt', in which foreground and background are integrated as a coherent depiction. The foregrounded object, however, is thrown into relief - isolating it (i.e. we see the faces but we don't register the vase, and vice-versa). This shifting quality, where one part of the pattern must recede, has interesting implications for art and film; especially when, as in the following examples, the representation of two hu...

'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère:' painting, 1882; Edouard Manet. 'Paris, Texas:' film, 1984; Wim Wenders (director), Robby Müller (cinematographer) and Nastassja Kinski (actress). Illustration 1, 'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère:'  A barmaid stands before a mirror, which reveals the view that she sees (including a man at the counter). Illustration 2 and 3, 'Paris, Texas:'  A female figure is shown from behind, accompanied by a male at a bar. She glances over her shoulder at someone she thought had approached (her husband, who has been missing for four years), but recognizes no one. A woman stares out at, but appears not to see, us. The bar, functioning as a barrier and a framing device, establishes a tension: between the actual space depicted, and an implied space outside of the picture-frame. The mirror becomes a further window, a 'world-within-a-world.' As observers, we move towards the woman, and, in 'A Bar at ...