This is Not Magritte: Corneliu Porumboiu’s Theory of Representation

Abstract

The chapter attempts to provide an analysis of Porumboiu's body of work in a way that goes beyond the notions of Realism that is usually discussed in relation to the New Romanian Cinema. Theories of visual and verbal representation are identified that seem to be central to several of his Porumboiu's films from Foucault's seminal discussion of Magritte through Barthes's analysis of the Panzani commercial, Gadamer's description of the differences between signs, images and symbols, to Mitchell's notion of metapicture. Two important issues are highlighted: the mediality of representations and their relation to the represented reality. The author contends that although these theoretical issues are clearly brought up in the stories and dialogues of the films, Porumboiu fails to make them an intrinsic part of his own filmic form of expression.