Bard College Berlin News
Prof. Dr. Matthias Hurst discusses the personification of death in film for ARTE documentary
In the documentary, which was filmed on BCB’s campus last summer, Hurst discusses the personification of death as it is portrayed in films and series. “People have been trying for a long time to give shape to death, to symbolize death,” Hurst explains, “and that means not only finding an image for death but also a meaning for death.”
Examples of films and series personifying death mentioned in the documentary include Das siebente Siegel (1957, Ingmar Bergman), Space is the Place (1974, John Coney), and Sandman (2022, Neil Gaiman). Ingmar Bergman’s films are also featured in Hurst’s courses in the BCB curriculum. Last semester, Hurst taught FM325: The Films of Ingmar Bergman, as well as FM229: Aliens in Film. This semester, he is teaching FM340: Robots, Computers, and AI in Film.
In the documentary, Hurst notes that while cultural attitudes toward death have changed through the centuries, and in the history of film the incarnations of death have represented different aspects of the concept depending on historical, cultural, or aesthetic contexts, the personification of death in narrative art as a humanlike character that could be understood—to a certain degree—in human terms has remained a constant idea. That idea is based on the awareness that death is an essential, but unknown and uncontrollable force in all our lives. He references the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, which, even in the 18th century BC portrayed the knowledge that while death affects everyone, no one truly knows what death looks like.
The documentary is part of the series Flick Flack - Kultur über Kopf, and is available to stream for free on ARTE, the public German-French European culture channel. View the full documentary episode in German here.
Post Date: 01-22-2024