THE EXTREME CINEMATOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE

Abstract

In the field of extreme cinema and its well-known objectives to disturb, to promote the unpleasant and the experimentation of the intense, Irreversible (Irréversible, 2002), by Gaspar Noé, is a typical example of these intentions. Approaching this cinematographic type in the relationships established between the film and the spectator, this article is an investigation into the strategies used for such successes. By observing the involvement that takes place in a more narrow, intimate and intense way, bringing the bodies together – filmic and viewer – and stimulating sensations, the analysis approaches the construction of the film through the aspects that promote the characteristic extreme experience. Through the compositional elements and the way in which the artifices used for the implementation of sensorial atmospheres, climates that immerse the spectator and the ambiences that surround him are applied, the analysis focuses on three formative aspects: cinematography and the sharing of emotional states between characters and audience; the use of the long-shot and the cinema that takes place in the spectator body; and the directive inversion of the narrative and the public's states of consciousness.