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sense of solitude and uselessness. The picture on the right evokes Cretacic Rocks in Riigen by
Caspar David Friederich; it shows a bleak seascape viewed through white rocks which form a
sort of eye, an effect which creates an impression of a two-way viewing process, the viewer's
eye being drawn towards the sea and also internally towards two small figures, one of them
kneeling, who seem to talk at a distance. The camera pans from the picture towards Giacobbe
and vice versa, as he - crouched childishly on the floor and against the wall - reflects on his
miserable condition, in dialogue with the double who is also crouched down, but in a
wardrobe. The scene creates an effect similar to the picture, in terms of positioning the
viewer as a beholder of both the diegetic world and the extra-diegetic world of the author's
expression.
In the performances of Giacobbe and the double, Expressionist rhetoric takes the form
of existentialist monologues punctuated by literary and poetic metaphors. The characters'
lines are full of peculiar utterances, notably a repetition of the words 'freedom', 'theatre' and
the phrase 'let's throw off the masks', shouted in different tones. The statement 'It is
forbidden to forbid, it is prohibited to prohibit' is recited like a litany. The image of Giacobbe
exhausting himself in screaming out his social discomfort - through a combination of
anguished outbursts and rhetorical language - is the result of Bertolucci's fusion of
Expressionist rhetoric with the disturbing qualities of Artaud's theatre. These two stylized
representational modes, which shape Partner in visual and narrative terms, demand
continuous mental associations and confer an emotional charge upon the film's intellectual
concerns regarding the troubled rapport between the individual and society. They establish a
desolate mood of angst throughout the film, and provide bursts of emotion during Giacobbe's
moments of despair.
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