The Three Gorges Dam and funeral imagery: iconology and visual culture in Still Life, by Jia Zhangke

Abstract

Using theoretical and analytical tools from the fields of Iconology and Visual Culture, this article seeks to study the relationship between the film Still Life (San Xia Hao Ren 三峡好人, 2006), directed by Jia Zhangke, and some pictorial genres, as well as certain image apparatus. We focus particularly on the analysis of a sequence of the film in which we can identify the cinematographic incorporation of specific image configurations within the visual arts. Thus, we observe that the director's work involves the elaboration of a pictorial and symbolic program that dialogues deeply with some artistic traditions and fundamental cultural themes. As we demonstrate, the Chinese director makes use of images whose characteristics allow us to discern a privileged cultural relationship with funeral imagery. Through this imagery, the director raises reflections of an aesthetic, anthropological, and metaphysical nature while also acquiring, from a singular configuration of film material, a social and political meaning within a given historical context.