1. “There are some aspects of human life that can only be faithfully represented through poetry. But this is where directors very often try to use clumsy, conventional gimmickry instead of poetic logic. I'm thinking of the illusionism and extraordinary effects involved in dreams, memories and fantasies. All too often film dreams are made into a collection of old-fashioned filmic tricks, and cease to be a phenomenon of life.” (Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time 1989, 30). [Retirn to page 1]

2. “That is why we say that in perception the thing is given to us ‘in person’, or ‘in the flesh’. Prior to and independently of other people, the thing achieves that miracle of expression: an inner reality which reveals itself externally, a significance which descends into the world and begins its existence there, and which can be fully understood only when the eyes seek it in its own location.” (Merleau-Ponty 1962, 373).

3. “Power and violence, though they are distinct phenomena, usually appear together. Wherever they are combined, power, we have found, is the primary and predominant factor.” (Arendt, 1970).  Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is less interested, I feel, in power in itself. The state is absent, in a western filmic tradition while the sinking city, even if historically carefully linked with the Katrina aftermath, seems to imply a post-apocalyptic vibe.

4. See notably Kierkegaard’s concept of knight of faith  (Kierkegaard 1983, 38).

5.  (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus 1942, 20).