Law and violence in the movies

2014

A lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

The depiction of violence has been a leitmotif of cinema from the very beginning. It takes on very different functions in different genres. The question of the law of violence and the violence of law has always been an important strand in cinematic narratives. Many feature films that tell of acts, events and conditions of open or latent violence pose the question of the legitimacy of the social orders in which violence arises and fades through the way they are told. They deal with the intimacy of law and violence. Law-making violence is staged in the same way as violence in the enforcement or application of law and order. Another central motif is the apparent or actual diffusion of the difference between legal and non-legal violence within societies governed by the rule of law. In all of these relationships, cinema exposes the role of the law as an unstable, fragile or only ostensible protection against social violence – and thus the fragility of the normative orders that it represents in each case.

Based on exemplary films from different genres and eras, the lecture series will explore how the interlocking of law, justice and violence is dramatized in their artistic treatment – and what light this sheds on idealizing premises and principles in traditional and current theories of law and politics. The cinema also tells of the genesis of normative orders from experiences of violence and injustice as well as of the various forms of violence associated with the – one-off – establishment and – permanently repeated – enforcement of these orders. The internal views from the life of normative orders are characterized by an oscillation between justification and questioning, legitimation and de-legitimation, which is rarely clearly resolved. This aesthetic reflective achievement of cinema allows a non-illusionary view of normative orders and their inner connection with violence, which they often attempt to tame in vain.

After an introductory lecture, the respective film will be shown, followed by an opportunity for discussion.

Museum of Modern Art
Domstr. 10, 60311 Frankfurt

Program:

Friday, 25.4.2014, 19.00 h

Verena Lueken (Frankfurt am Main):
“Babes Behind Bars – Law and Violence in Women’s Prison Films”
about Caged (John Cromwell, USA 1950)

Friday, 9.5.2014, 7 p.m.

Martin Seel (Frankfurt am Main):
“Anonymous Views of Covert Violence”
about Caché (Michael Haneke, France et. al. 2005)

Friday, 23.5.2014, 19.00 h

Klaus Günther (Frankfurt am Main):
“Die Pathologien des Ausnahme-Rechts”
about Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, USA 2012)

Friday, 27.6.2014, 19.00 h

Angela Keppler (Mannheim):
“A travesty of violent relationships inside and outside the cinema”
about Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, France-Italy 1965)

Wednesday, 16.7.2014, 19.00

James Conant (Chicago):
“The invisibility of a perfect director”
about Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1960)

Organized by Prof. Dr. Angela Keppler and Prof. Dr. Martin Seel

Organizer: Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” with the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt am Main