Abstract

The essay aims at discussing the concept of orientation in cinema through a comparison between Aby Warburg and Werner Herzog. There appears to be a close connection between the Herzogian idea of orientation seen as the form (and origin) of the cinematographic image and the Warburgian concept of orientation as movement in space and time. The essay will show – also through the analysis of the initial sequence of Aguirre, the Wrath of God – how the construction of the image in Herzog is strongly linked to a concept of orientation that determines not only the movement of bodies in space, but also the very particular Herzogian découpage, in which the editing emphasizes the contrasts between the forms of space and the movements of bodies.