Monomodal and Multimodal Film Representation of the Metaphor: 'Time Passing Is Motion' An Analytical Approach with the Conceptual Integration Model

Abstract

“Metaphors often allow us to express subtle nuances of thought and feeling that would otherwise be inexpressible” (Ritchie, 2006, p. 2).Inspired by this citation and the latest developments of cognitive science, in this paper we shall attempt to analyse the cinematic representation of the conceptual metaphor “Time Passing Is Motion”.

The principle tools in this study are the theory of Conceptual metaphor and the Conceptual Integration model. We will discuss the editing of film frames as ‘montage of mental spaces’ whose interaction and integration leads to the emergence of concepts, ideas and feelings in the spectator. The cases examined are extracts from two films, “The Last Laugh” by F. Murnau (1924) and “I Am Twenty” by M. Khoutsiev (1965), and serve as examples of research that seeks to explain the emergence of time metaphor in cinema. We attempt to give a response to the question how the cinema can communicate abstract signification to the observer. This article argues that the metaphorical transfer of abstract thought is possible in the cinematic medium, by means of image schemata and via the activation of cognitive mechanisms of the spectator.

Could the theory of Conceptual integration help us to untangle and understand the process of film metaphor construction, and its impact on the spectator?

Keywords: Time, Cinema, Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Integration, Multimodality