A representação do criminoso nas versões do filme Cape Fear dos anos de 1962 e 1991

Abstract

This thesis aims at investigating how visual characteristics of the criminal have been represented in the cinema. Based on the case study of Cape Fear (1962) and Cape Fear (1991) movies, the research searchs for identifying possible relations with the theories of Fisiognomony, and, particularly, with the imaginary that emerges from the positivist science of the nineteenth century, which was presented by the Criminal Anthropology of Cesare Lombroso. It observes from a perspective that embraces the history of art, considering the importance of the graphic representation in the explanation and popularization of these theories in that period, as well as the Social Anthropology in the critical analysis of the representation of otherness, based on stereotypes and biological determinism that characterizes the eighteenth period. The adopted methodology follows a qualitative approach of an interpretative nature, based on concepts of Cultural Anthropology, focused on the interpretive approach of culture and cultural diversity. The main results of the research emphasize that the use of stereotypes has been an often resource applied in the production of visual narratives. Moreover, relating to the category of the personages that are here analyzed, they are strongly anchored on a set of physical characteristics that were catalogued by Lombroso (2007) as indications of a born criminal. This emphasizes the importance of thinking about the needs of the cinematographic narrative, as well as the demanded awareness in order to avoid prejudiced and ethnocentric representations.