Essay - Suturing in Film Theory and Other Narrative Practices on A...

Suturing in Film Theory and Other Narrative Practices

On a very literal level, to suture something is to sew ***** back together, usually imperfectly, usually with a substance that is alien to the body that is being altered—such as the doctor's suturing thread that stitches together an open wound. On a semiotic level, according to Jacques-Alain Miller, Miller's definition of suture (in a nutshell) ***** that the sutur*****g process in culture is the process through which a subject is joined into the signifying chain ***** culture, allowing a signifier to stand-in for ***** *****'s absence in discourse. (Suture as a L*****conian Concept)

This idea is derived from the Laconian concept of gesture, or pseudo-identification, where one thing is used ***** stand in for another in a system of signific*****tion. This standing-in sutures the system ***** signification, and makes it seem more seamless than it truly is. The stand-in may be false as the doctor's thread, or ***** may ***** alien to the ***** of ***** object being sutured to, as nylon ***** to flesh. However, the act ***** suturing creates a sense of unity that is not actually present in ***** system of signification, ***** any signification *****.

The ***** of suturing h***** been taken up by film theor*****t to suggest the ***** by ***** a gazer at a film is taken ***** into ***** narrative fabric of the ***** and is changed ***** what he or s***** sees. The experience ***** seeing the film alters the unique subjective consciousness of every individual viewing that film, in and at a p*****rticular moment ***** in a particular space where the film ***** being show. Usually this alteration takes the form of a confirmation, confirming certain cultural ideals.

This act is accomplished as the individual watching ***** ***** becoming the 'stand in' for the camera gazing at ***** objects ***** the film. Note the falseness that is inherent in the system of ***** in ***** gazing-at of a film. The c*****mera itself is a f*****lse or non-integrated object supposedly true to life in the way it captures images. The capturing and editing of film invisibly changes the quality of the ***** passing before ***** camera, by observing it and setting ***** down in the form of a viewed film. To observe something is to change it.

In suturing, ***** individual ***** the film stands in for the camera, and takes on that *****'s gaze, adding ***** level ***** fictionally constructed nature ***** the *****. The ***** passing be*****e the camera are selected and (usually) fictionally rendered, or if documentary, are at least limited by the focus of editing and the camera's *****. Every level of analysis of ***** filmed ***** ***** yields another ***** of suturing; another level of what is fiction. The objects on the screen 'mis-recognize' ***** eye of the viewer and treat ***** viewer as if his or her ***** were a camera. The viewer is placed in thus an imaginary place of transcendence, becoming an all-knowing eye (or