The Eye-Opening Power of Creation : Images of AIDS and the Multifaceted Meanings of “Representation” in Robin Campillo’s BPM

Abstract

Through the analysis of Robin Campillo’s film BPM (2017), this article seeks to analyze the role of images in our conceptualisation of the AIDS pandemic. By choosing to document a moment in France’s recent history that has been given little attention by cinema – namely Act Up-Paris’ activism during the 90s and its fight for social justice – the film endeavours to revisit the past through the lens of those individuals whose actions were instrumental in raising awareness of the state’s negligence in its handling of the pandemic. It is argued that by deciding to portray an organization whose public image was instrumental in its fight against the status quo surrounding AIDS, the film’s visual regimen rests on a mise-en-abyme of the concept of “representation” that allows the viewer to reflect on the way images can shape our understanding of social phenomena. We will more particularly focus on the relationship between images, memory, and knowledge. A semiotic analysis of the film image will enable us to highlight the constant dialogue the film establishes between the medium itself (i.e. the film image and the various elements that participate in its creation) and its subject matter. We will observe how Campillo creates images whose meaning is twofold: they shed light on the convergence of individual and community concerns that sustained the various public actions undertaken by Act Up-Paris, and how the latter perceived images as a disruptive force designed to unsettle the status quo surrounding the AIDS epidemic. By choosing to represent individuals whose involvement was instrumental in transforming people’s perception of AIDS but who have long remained invisible, the director also intends to create images that will enrich and deepen our knowledge of a recent yet little-known period of modern history.