Page - 15 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

Reality and Paternity | 15www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 15–32 Isabella Guanzini Reality and Paternity in the Cinema of the Dardennes I increasingly meet people who don’t exist. I don’t know where they are (perhaps in their image?), but they are not there. This is a strange society that produces indi- viduals who are not there, who do not exist for others, who do not exist for them- selves, for whom nobody exists. At the end of the film, Bruno will exist. Luc Dardenne, Au dos de nos images, 1991–2005 Something possible, otherwise I will suffocate Ingrid Bergman, Europa 51 ABSTRACT The Dardenne brothers’ filmic production aims at restoring the missing link between human beings and the world that has been progressively undermined during the ultimate development of late-capitalist society. This contribution deals with their search for a new contact with reality and a concrete belief in the world, focusing on the theme of body and paternity, in the epoch of their evaporation. However, in or- der to rethink the paternal function in a post-political and post-ideological age, the Dardennes have had to radically come to terms with its ambiguity and oscillation be- tween abandon and adoption, self-preservation and transmission, forgiveness and revenge. With regard to this ambivalence, this contribution focuses on two films by the Dardennes, La promesse (The Promise, BE/FR/LU/TN 1996) and Le fils (The Son, BE/FR 2002), which represent significant descriptions of what (the body of) a father is capable of, suggesting, at the same time, interruption and filiation as possible experi- ences for a new beginning. KEYWORDS Dardennes, belief, immanence, paternal function, interruption BIOGRAPHY Dr. Isabella Guanzini is Professor for Fundamental Theology at the University of Graz and member of the interdisciplinary research platform “Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society” of the University of Vienna. Her research interests focus on the philosophical reception of Christian categories, the relationship between theol- ogy and psychoanalysis, philosophy of religion and aesthetics.