The Status of the Close-Up in the Age of the Selfie

Abstract

FQ columnist Manuel Betancourt ponders the power of the cinematic close-up in an era when the screened face is a ubiquitous presence on phones in selfies, front-facing videos, and Zoom grids alike. Taking Roland Barthes and Argentine writer Manuel Puig’s reverence for the faces of the silver screen sirens of Classical Hollywood as his starting point, Betancourt discusses the focus on the face in two recent films: the Mexican film Dos estaciones (Juan Pablo González, 2022) and the Chilean film Vendrá la muerte y tendrá tus ojos (Death Will Come and Shall Have Your Eyes, José Luis Torres Leiva, 2019). Although they have little in common thematically or aesthetically, both films share a focus on older queer female protagonists along with the visual grammar of the face, allowing Betancourt to appreciate the power of the close-up anew.