The Obvious and the Code

Bellour's piece, in all its complexity and seemingly needless theoretical jargon, really solidified for me a concept that pulls together my study of film thus far. His invocation of semiotics to talk about film as a language, consisting of signified and signifier like any other, really helped me as an English person to draw the analogy between literature and film, just like the Russian Formalists once did. The close textual analysis of a scene is just like the close textual analysis of a dense passage of prose, in revealing meanings represented subtly through artistic choices. As for Bellour's piece itself, well, it's an example of just how deep and precise one can take said analysis. Everything in film, like everything in art, is a choice, and choices are made for a reason. Meaning can't get lost in simplicity, in obviousness, if that itself is meaningful and significant.