Jesse James assassiné ou le crépuscule d’une idole

Jocelyn Dupont (1)

1 CRESEM - Centre de Recherche sur les Sociétés et Environnements en Méditerranées

This article deals with the variations on the mythical figure of American outlaw Jesse James in Andrew Dominik’ The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) in the light of Raymond Bellour’s authoritative theories on western film as well as his more recent study of cinema as a hypnotic or “hypnagogic” experience, as propounded in his recent study Le corps du cinema (2009). Following a brief survey of the genealogy of Jesse James on screen since the 1920s, this article discusses the tension between historiography, mythology and aesthetics in Dominik’s film. By looking at the many stylistic processes employed by the filmmaker in his quest to trigger a hypnagogic response in the spectator, it concludes that The Assassination offers a way to experience mythography as reverie.

Mots clés: Andrew Dominik; hypnagogy; James; Mythography; post-classical cinema; Raymond Bellour; Western

Domaines: Littératures; Art et histoire de l'art

Jocelyn Dupont. Jesse James assassiné ou le crépuscule d’une idole. Cycnos, 2012, Le cinéma américain face à ses mythes, 28 (2), pp.31-46. ⟨hal-02440355⟩