Icons on the Surface

The bachelor thesis Icons on the Surface deals with the film representations of the human body in medieval culture. The main aim of the work is not only to illuminate how real life and real body in the Middle Ages compares with what we have seen in the movies, but also to analyze what the various attitudes towards this topic tell us about comtemporary cinematography and culture. In addition to several particular film analyses working as a case studies, the author examines the key role of body in the process of film narration and a relationship between the body of the film, the body behind the camera and the body of the viewer. The thesis also deals with the problem of capturing history on the movie screen and investigates the impulses that may lead filmmakers to bring the past to the life. The author sees film representation of medieval body as a challenge to filmmakers. In her point of view the medieval body is the body filled with unique symbolic meanings, oscillating in existential amplitudes. Thus, in the film represetations of this body, the artist may invite their audience to experience images on the screen in their basic aesthetic and symbolic qualities