Katerina Virvidaki
Author of the book “Testing Coherence in Narrative Film”
Katerina Virvidaki is the author of the book “Testing Coherence in Narrative Film”, which examines the ways in which the concept of coherence might be used as a critical and interpretive tool in aesthetic film studies analyses.
The core question around which the content of this book unfolds is how certain films that may, at first glance, seem unintelligible, difficult and eccentric cinematic works can, in the end, become intelligible and interesting. In other words, what are the mechanisms by which these works manage to manifest their coherence and intelligibility? And moreover, how might we trace and express these mechanisms?
In order to answer these questions, the book starts by first exploring how we might understand the mechanisms by which classical narrative films manifest coherence. The author then proceeds to explore how we can broaden, expand, and readjust our understanding of these mechanisms, applying them to films that are narratively and stylistically much more complex.
The analysis centers on the following films: “Madame De…” (Max Ophuls, 1953), “Ordet” (Carl-Theodor Dreyer, 1955), “Passion” (Jean-Luc Godard, 1982), “Pulp Fiction” (Quentin Tarantino, 1994), and “The Thin Red Line” (Terrence Malick, 1998).
