Rhizome as a Model of the Film's Artistic Space

Abstract

The article explores the network-like (rhizomorphic) structure of a movie’s artistic space. The rhizome pattern is a seemingly chaotic interweaving of lines, paths, and meanings. It is a concept of postmodern philosophy that describes a fundamentally non-structural and non-linear way of organizing a coherent system, leaving open the possibility for immanent autochthonous flexibility and, accordingly, the realization of its internal creative potential of self-configuration. The rhizome is a radical alternative to self-contained and static linear structures that entail a rigid axial hierarchy. The rhizomorphic labyrinth is a set of specifically organized associations. The way these associations form and influence each other becomes one of the basic notions of rhizome dramaturgy. The rhizome, presumably, has two important structural elements: the node and the plateau. A node is the intersection of the rhizome threads, a plot-significant element of dramatic structure, semantically and ontologically bound by the integrity of the screen work. A plateau occurs between nodes, of which there can be more than two. In the plateau area, the character moves through the space of the rhizomorphic labyrinth, and the plateau is often subject to linear interpretation. Using the examples of such films as The Hand of God (2021), The Great Beauty (2013) by Paolo Sorrentino, Dazed and Confused (1993) by Richard Linklater, Amarcord (1973) by Federico Fellini, Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006) by David Lynch, the author assesses them in terms of nodes and plateaus. Assumptions are made about the ways of forming non-linear forms of narrative works. At the same time, an analysis is made of the very concept of non-linear narration and the possibility of its application to film dramaturgy, which, in any case, complies with an axial orientation relative to the timeline. The nonlinearity of a film should be understood as the space of interpretation available in its analysis.