O corpo no cinema silencioso em Béla Balázs e F.W. Murnau

Abstract

The aim of this article is to establish relations between the thinking of the Hungarian philosopher Béla Balázs and some films by the German filmmaker F.W. Murnau regarding the studies about the body in the the silent cinema. For Balázs, gestures and facial expressions construct a language of body, making possible the understanding of the characters’s destiny. The language of the body in the silent film is related, on the one hand, with mankind's language in its original state; on the other, with the poses and the expressions already researched in other forms of arts: Performing and Visual. Some Murnau’s films serve as examples to think about these issues. It is a question of seeking a horizontal interface between philosophy and art, considering its way of coexistence in the period when the cinema did not speak.