Dominique Païni's Poetic Essay on Shadow in Cinema

Dominique Païni's essay 'L'attrait de l'ombre' (published by Éditions Yellow Now) explores the concept of shadow in cinema with poetic freedom, drawing literary and cinematic parallels. Païni develops a Mallarméan idea of shadow as a 'gray quiver' with 'blunted contours, a fuzzy, powdery, mobile phenomenon.' Like a cloud, shadow is indefinite and ephemeral; only the cinematic image can sustain it. Païni delves into the phenomenon of shadow as projection and image, a 'negative of being revealed by light,' referencing Dreyer's 'Vampyr.' He analyzes shadows in works by Dreyer, Lang, Wells, and Renoir, but surprises with his reading of Godard's 'JLG/JLG Self-Portrait in December,' where shadow expands to self-portraiture as 'projection of self' and 'search for shadows within oneself.' Païni proposes a 'shadow stage' akin to Lacan's mirror stage, where reflection yields to opacity and Narcissus becomes a faceless other, a shadow puppet. The review is by Léa Bismuth.