The moving image: the aesthetics of loss and solace in the modern mourning film

Abstract

Bereavement and mourning frequently occur as subjects in fiction and poetry. This paper, based on a larger piece of research, explores mourning as it is articulated in film. Starting with an overview of literary and cinematic representations of loss through the 20^th and into the 21^st century, it uses the 2008 film Genova as a case study, demonstrating both how this particular film depicts grief in the context of the psychoanalytic and bereavement literature, and how the medium's particular qualities are especially suited to depict the bereavement experience. Cinema, it argues, may itself offer a powerful therapeutic means for the bereaved to explore their own experience.

Keywords:

• bereavement
• film
• representation
• mourning
• narrative