Varia: The Aesthetics of Self-Reflexivity in Neil Jordan’s Film Mona Lisa

Authors:

Pages: 151-162
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/PDXI7335

Abstract:

How to voice your artistic protest against the malignant spirit of commodification that has permeated all spheres of social and private life, knowing that the result of your work will be just another product on the shelf? The director, Neil Jordan, offers a brilliant cinematic solution to this fundamental ethical dilemma faced by all unconventional artists. In my paper, I argue that his film Mona Lisa is a self-referential work of art that operates on two levels: in addition to the main narrative level, which is wrapped in noir stylistics, there is a second, meta level that offers a different perspective on the dark, cynical, and desperate worldview supported by film noirs. Jordan’s film extensively employs the genre’s representational strategies to depict the moral decay of Thatcherite England. At the same time, in a playful spirit and without shedding its commercial noir veneer, it exposes the ideological invisibility of the genre and thoroughly revises its underlying worldview.

Keywords:

self-reflexivity, self-referentiality, film noir, femme fatale, heterotopia.

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