Elena’s life trajectory
Film narratives and discursive strategies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22475/rebeca.v14n1.1142Keywords:
Petra Costa, Discourse, Autofiction, Life storyAbstract
This study analyzes the film Elena (2013), directed by Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa, whose narrative focuses on the process of overcoming and assimilating the death of her sister, who committed suicide. The objective is to understand the discursive strategies developed to narrate, overcome and assimilate the represented trauma. In this direction, an interdisciplinary approach was carried out that covers the analysis of cinematographic language and discourse. The study methodology includes a) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which offers the necessary tool to examine the life story, using words and their meanings; and b) film analysis, which investigates the formal resources of cinema. The analyses carried out reveal that the filmmaker uses memory accounts and documents to shape her identity, but also employs fictional strategies, especially when establishing parallels between Elena and Ophelia, the famous Shakespearean character. In this way, she ends up motivating the audience's commotion, with the purpose of generating emotions. Characteristics of the autofiction and film-essay genres are also identified in Elena. Furthermore, the unfolding of the trauma ends up affecting three characters, focusing on the mother, Petra herself and Elena, with the depressive process being what unites them.
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