Albert Serra’s the death of Louis XIV (2016) according to Deleuze’s concept of affection-image

Abstract

This paper will conceptually apply and analyze Gilles Deleuze’s concept of affection-image, using The Death of Louis XIV (2016), to determine what the affection-image depicts and how it depicts it. Deleuze’s concept is singular in its reconceptualization of the close-up shot where here moves the dimensions, i.e. size and scale, ofthe shot from its definition and instead argues that the meaning of the shot depends upon the value (quality and power) it manifests. Deleuze calls this value ‘the affect’, and ‘the affect’ is the singular requirement for an image to be categorized as affection-image.I chose Albert Serra’s The Death of Louis XIV to apply and analyze the affection-image because it is a film largely reliant on close-up shots and is a great example of a modern day ‘affectivefilm’. Specifically, I shall study the moments and instances where affection-image materializes in The Death of Louis XIV. I determined that there are three notable instances where Deleuze’s concept plays out: firstly, affection-image as failed action-image; secondly, affection-image as any-space-whatever; and thirdly, affection-image as degradation to impulse-image.Deleuze’s concept of the affection-image may encompass shots that are commonly known as medium and wide shots. The affection-images in The Death of Louis XIV create, in aesthetic arrangement with other images, a poignant and wry memento mori about the futility of power n the face of death, and about the banality of death and its ceremonies.