Disease as a movie theme. Media and genological analysis

Abstract

The paper concentrates on a comparative interpretation of two films which are classified by their authors as melodramas. The first one is Michael Haneke’s Love and the second one is The Notebook by Nick Cassavetes. The films selected for this analysis represent two different attitudes to disease. Haneke creates a moving image of dying, which is associated not only with physical death, but also the death of human dignity. Cassavetes focuses on a story before the disease of the main heroine, while her affliction is treated as a complement to the happy life, rather than a leading motif. The purpose of the paper is to compare the films from different perspectives: media and genological, as well as to answer the question why directors from various cultures perceive the topic of disease as a film theme in such distinct ways.