The Non-final Cut: The Biopolitics of Necrorealist Cinema

Abstract

The article examines the biopolitical aspects of necrorealist cinematic experiments of the 1980s. Engaging in dialogue with Alexei Yurchak, who in his discussion of necrorealist biopolitics implicitly disavows the group’s cinematic efforts, the article shows that the “necro-” aspects of necrorealism emerged as a result of the group’s engagement with images. The cinematic medium, with its paradox of simultaneous stillness and motion, was particularly well-equipped to produce what the necrorealists called noncorpses, hybrid entities that challenge the absolute separation of the human and the inhuman, political and bare life. Paradoxically, however, the necrorealist project of dismantling boundaries was ultimately dependent on boundaries itself: the mediating shield of a cinematic screen, the safety of the editing room, and the time- and space-defying capacity of the cinematic cut.