About the event
by Marc Cerisuelo
This talk elaborates on a few “reception” genres (that is to say, genres that were called such post factum rather than following the studios’ deliberate intention), which I propose to call “psychopomp fictions”, after one of god Hermes’s functions in Greek mythology, namely that of accompanying souls in the afterlife.
“Psychopomp fictions” account for a hitherto new relationship between the living and the dead in cinema. They are metaphysical fantasies made in several different countries and eras, with the 1940s as a “temporal epicentre” thanks to such works as Here Comes Mr. Jordan (A. Hall, 1941), It’s a Wonderful Life (F. Capra, 1946), A Matter of Life and Death (M. Powell et E. Pressburger, 1946), and Orphée (J. Cocteau, 1950).
In the talkies, the (double) prototype is the adaptation of Ferenc Molnár’s theatrical piece Liliom in Hollywood (F. Borzage, 1930) and Paris (F. Lang, 1935). One can go back to silent cinema too, or forward to our own contemporary era, or even look at the several remakes that have been made in the meantime.
What matters in these fictions is their transitional stage between life and death: not a passage from one to the other but rather a constant coming-and-going, back and forth, where the celestial messengers are the main operators of communication between the two worlds.
Making death relative and transitory (lasting as long as the film’s screentime, or even a single superimposition) goes against any logics, no matter how elementary, and against any customary conception of human finitude. Such is the paradoxical interest of this “odd genre”, borrowing as much from comedy’s resources as from an inevitably darker tone.
The seminar is jointly organised by Film Studies and Intermediality at the University of Edinburgh.
About the speaker
Marc Cerisuelo is Professor of Film Studies and Aesthetics at the Université Gustave Eiffel (Paris), and a member of the Institut universitaire de France. He collaborates with Positif magazine and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Critique.
His many publications include, among others, Jean-Luc Godard (1989), Hollywood à l'écran : Les métafilms américains (2000), Stanley Cavell: Cinéma et philosophie (co-edited with Sandra Laugier, 2001), Vienne et Berlin à Hollywood: Nouvelles approches (edited collection, 2006), Comédie(s) Américaine(s). D'Ernst Lubitsch à Blake Edwards: Histoires d'une forme, avatars d'un genre (2021), Oh Brothers! Sur la piste des frères Coen (with Claire Debru, 2022), and more recently, Billy Wilder: Un Européen à Hollywood (2025) and Preston Sturges ou le Génie de l’Amérique (2026).
How to attend
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