Abstract

This paper explores notions of realism, evidence, undecidability and faith in the context of our relationship with images following the digital revolution and the transition from a culture of analog photographic and filmic records to the new space-time of virtual reality. The argument provide a reappraisal of modern and post-modern conceptions of the photographic image and of film, which have queried the inherent realism of the indexical photographic sign, and have highlighted the fraught ontological and temporal nature of images supposed to document and extend our perceptual relationship to reality, beyond the confines of time. The films discussed in this paper include: Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel, Chris Marker's La jetée, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, Alain Resnais's Last Year in Marienbad and You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, and Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love.