Research Seminar - Dissonances: Aesthetic Beauty, Moral Beauty, and Deformity in Crimes of the Future (2022)

Dissonances: Aesthetic Beauty, Moral Beauty, and Deformity in Crimes of the Future (2022)

Presented by: Dr Matthew Cipa

Date: Friday 25 October 2024
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at 09-738 (Level 7, Michie Building)

Abstract

This paper begins to work through foundational ideas for my current research project that seeks to understand the productive complications of aesthetic and moral beauty in horror films. Aesthetic beauty is understood here to refer to objects or works of art whose nature, quality, composition, and/or arrangement motivate a particular kind of pleasure. It is hopefully largely without controversy that we can recognise a range of horror films as aesthetically beautiful, either as total works or at least in selected parts of works: Kubrick’s masterful use of harmony, balance, and geometry in The Shining (1980), the use of colour in Suspiria (dir. Dario Argento, 1977), or the expressionistic tenor of Alien (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979), for example. How is it, though, that the aesthetic qualities of horror films can be beautiful, but what those aesthetic qualities express (including moral content) is by requirement of the genre horrific, monstrous, or deformed in some way? Moreover, how does this tension complicate assumptions regarding the inseparability of form and content? I am not interested in the moral “offensiveness” of the content, rather I am concerned with how the tension between the form and content of horror films represent the complexities of aesthetic and moral beauty. By moral beauty, I mean the virtues and human-like qualities, abilities, and talents of a person’s character independent of their physical embodiment. Treating aesthetic and moral beauty in this way reveals the layers of appearance in horror films that mediate the moral beauty and/or ugliness that films of the genre often express. While the generic form of horror films often motivates an association of physical deformity with what might be called moral ugliness, the persistent presence of beauty complicates these issues to create a morally and aesthetically rich means of storytelling. I draw out these issues through an analysis of Crimes of the Future (dir. David Cronenberg, 2022).

Presenter

Matthew Cipa is teaching associate in film and television studies in the School of Communication and Arts and affiliate academic in the School of Languages and Cultures. He is the author of Is Harpo Free? and Other Questions of the Metaphysical Screen (SUNY Press, 2024).