Abstract:

The eschatological film is an important film genre in recent years. but there are still some limitations in the analysis of it. First, we only pay attention to its “spectacle” aspect, but ignore its internal relationship with eschatology, the “end-of-the-world” and other profound philosophical issues. Second, we focus only on certain limited aspects of the apocalyptic spectacle, such as natural disasters, while ignoring the different forms of the “end of the world” that marked the transition from the Cold War to the post-9/11 era. This paper intends to make an in-depth analysis of the eschatological film from these two aspects. From the perspective of philosophical history, this paper examines the evolution clue of the concept of “world” and the transformation from “apocalypse” to the “end-of-the-world”. Furthermore, together with an analysis of the recent development of the eschatological film, it reveals how the “end-of-the-world” cinema returns to the individuals’ survival experience under the background of the post-9/11 potential doomsday, but eventually falls into the eschatological truth cycle. Finally, examining Derrida’s text and Lars von Trier’s images, this paper explores an alternative possibility after the existing apocalyptic film and the end-of-the-world cinema, facing the starting point that “the world has gone”, and rebuilding the foundation of subjectivity with melancholy empathy as a bond.

Key words: apocalypse, end-of-the-world, world, idea, experience, absolute nothingness, melancholy