To poetry, to borrow from Croce, is attributed the sphere of the imagination, of dream, of unreality. Poetry, then, precedes the distinction between the real and the unreal. It would, therefore, make sense to agree with Heidegger that all...
moreTo poetry, to borrow from Croce, is attributed the sphere of the imagination, of dream, of unreality. Poetry, then, precedes the distinction between the real and the unreal. It would, therefore, make sense to agree with Heidegger that all arts are essentially poetry, or, focusing on cinema, take Pasolini's stance that cinema is substantially and naturally poetic because it is close to dreams. This poeticity, however, becomes more apparent in the work of filmmakers/ auteurs who are themselves poets in that they have a poetic vision. The present paper is a study of various mechanisms in such filmmakers' career. I focus on two figures. Theodoros Angelopoulos (1935-2012), and Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016). Angelopoulos was a Greek filmmaker well-versed in Greek literature and mythology. Analyzing his Ulysses' Gaze, the paper illuminates the ways Angelopoulos poeticizes history and hints at a shift from history as a progressive, linear movement to the Schillerian / postmodern idea of history as a 'sublime' entity. The second figure, Abbas Kiarostami, was familiar with literature as well as painting. Focusing on his film Where Is the Friend's House? the present paper tries to show how Kiarostami transcends the border between the real and unreal, and thus, how he poeticizes and anesthetizes the reality of everyday life. The paper traces the poetic elements of Greek tragedy in the work of Angelopoulos and those of Persian literature, both classical and modern in Kiarostami's work.
