2026/03/09 by Ilkka Levä · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Cinema and Media Studies #Critical Theory and Political Philosophy #Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics
paper · pdf · doi:10.37449/ennenjanyt.163540
openalex publication_date 2026/03/09 · openalex created_date 2026/03/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
French film director Robert Bresson's (1901-1999) last film was the L'argent (Money) 1983. The film was based on the first part of the 1911 novella 'The Forged Coupon' by Leo Tolstoy. The film follows a series of events set in motion by a counterfeit banknote. The style is stripped-down ascetic, minimalist and alienating. The compositions contain many close-ups of objects. In addition, the film's use of acting makes the characters 'models,' detached from their emotions. Research questions are: why do Bresson cultivate images that are partially delineated, use certain colors and make the characters unappealing to the viewer? Approach is motivated by the film theory of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, Deleuze and Félix Guattari's Schizoanalysis and the Institutional Theory of Money (ITM) which will be applied as a reading guide. Bresson's cinema is analyzed as a political image of its time. I argue that the film is motivated by the neoliberal revolution that took place in socialist president Francois Mitterrand's France in the early 1980's. As a simulacrum and otherness, the film can be read as an image of the hopelessness of Post-Industrial Capitalism at the dawn of Neoliberal rule.