Między wzniosłością a niesamowitością. Krajobraz w sekwencjach tytułowych współczesnych seriali kryminalnych

Abstract

The article reflects on the title sequences of three noir series set in a winter setting (Trapped, Fortitude and Arctic Circles). In contemporary series, these sequences often function as a trademark and are regarded as separate works of visual art. Interestingly, crime series, especially film noir, turn the landscape, rather than the protagonist or selected plots, into the key component of their opening credits. This element can evoke the landscape’s uniqueness, and its qualities go beyond the parameters of the picturesque. It is therefore the natural landscape with its exposure of nature that is the source of meaning, rather than the urban landscape, which is iconic for classical film noir. In the philosophical works (Kant, Burke, Freud) as well as in the painting tradition (especially Romantic), such a landscape is associated with the sublime and uncanny [German: unheimlich]. The neo-Romantic analysis applied by the author serves to demonstrate how the above-mentioned aesthetic categories attributed to natural landscapes are construed by means of cinematic stylistic devices.