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Title of the article: |
‘‘BLIND CHANCE’’ AND ‘‘THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE’’ BY K. KIESLOWSKI: RECEPTION OF “FORKING PATHS” BY J.L. BORGES IN POLISH CINEMA |
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Author(s): |
Shulyatyeva, D.V. |
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Information about the author/authors |
Dina V. Shulyatyeva — PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Myasnitskaya St. 20, 101000 Moscow, Russia. |
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Section |
Theory and history of culture |
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Year |
2024 |
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Volume |
Vol. 73 |
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Pages |
pp. 110–121 |
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Received |
February 19, 2024 |
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Approved after reviewing |
May 27, 2024 |
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Date of publication |
September 25, 2024 |
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DOI: |
https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2024-73-110-121 |
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Index UDK |
82.0 |
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Index BBK |
83 |
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Abstract |
‘‘Forking Paths’’ by J.L. Borges had a great influence on the culture of the second half of the 20th century, including films of the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski. Since the late 1970s, he has been turning to feature cinema and in this world of fiction, he has been experimenting with a narrative cinematic form. Thus, both ‘‘Blind Chance’’ (1981) and ‘‘The Double Life of Veronique’’ (1991) refract this Borgesian in their own way: ‘‘Blind Chance’’ opens up several ‘‘roads’’ for the viewer at once, as well as for the protagonist to take, since it is based on the consistent presentation to the viewer of variants of the same fate. ‘‘The Double Life of Veronique’’ is also based on variations, but also includes an experiment with a ‘‘denarrated’’ ending of the story told, otherwise rethinking Borges’ ideas. In the ‘‘Blind Chance’’ Kieslowski uses a means of narration that the narratologist G. Prince called ‘disnarration’: he puts the emphasis not on what actually happened to the hero, but only on what could possibly have happened, yet was not realized. In ‘‘The Double Life of Veronica’’ he resorts to what is described by the narratologist B. Richardson as ‘‘denarration’’: many variants of the film’s ending refute each other, imitating the “infinity” of storytelling, text, and variations, conceived by Borges in ‘‘The Garden of Forking Paths’’. |
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Keywords |
Kieslowski, Borges, Forking Paths, Blind Chance, Disnarration, Denarration, Variations, Kairos. |
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Reference |
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