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etween viewer and the viewed, perceived as a saturated -metaphorical lack of [...] difference
between viewer and fiction'; this effect can be achieved in different ways, and what Grodal
says about certain films 'reducing a given agent's ability to act, and emphasizing the agent's
perceptions and expressions of emotions', a process that reduces 'the possibilities of making
an objective time-space' is applicable to this sequence (Grodal, 1997: 164-165).
Symbiotic fusion occurs between the
viewer's gaze and Joe's as, enchanted, they
contemplate Caterina s s face and the moon (see
image). Here, the mise-en-scene plays on the
universal human experience of enchantment at ^J ; , *., •
the fascinating spectacle of the moon, and
evokes poetic traditions of comparing female
beauty to it. In this way, the scene loses its time-space definition by taking on a subjective
quality that shapes viewers' perception in a poetic form. As Grodal suggests, the
'deformation of canonical narratives may often lead to felt subjectivity' in the absence of a
clear link between given sequences and the rest of the narrative flow; he adds that the
'schemata of acts plays a key role in felt objectivity; if they are missing, feelings of
subjectivity and dreaminess will be created' (Grodal, 1997: 135). Moreover, the unspecific
temporal sequencing of these moments in the life of Joe and his mother is a key element
creating the subjective perception, given that 'many films produce subjectivity and
dreaminess by totally dissolving the objective time-structure' (Grodal, 1997: 136).
Conclusion
In critical terms, apart from a contemporary review praising the film's 'exceptional plastic
beauty' while simultaneously criticizing its lack of complexity, (Conrad 1979: 103) La lima
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