Ins Blaue

Abstract

The essay discusses Derek Jarman’s monochromatic film Blue. The interpretation of the film does not focus on its artistic examination of AIDS. Rather, it addresses the aesthetic self-reflexion of image and sound recording with regard to their arrangement and transformation into language. Amidst a flood of acoustic images, the blank screen assumes an auratic appearance. However, Blue does not obtain its autonomy as an artwork by radically rejecting the Culture Industry. Instead, the film can be considered as both an echo of the Culture Industry and its immanent critique. Finally, the question about the “Bildcharakter” – the image character – of this specific work of art arises.