"El poder de los sentidos en El señor Liberto y los pequeños placeres (Ana Serret, 2017): representaciones de la subjetividad e identidad en las personas con alzhéimer."

Abstract

Audiovisual texts have generally represented Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a negative way due to its medicalization and the importance that the Cartesian binary mind/body still has in our contemporary society. The prevalence of the mind over the body provokes fear about the memory loss linked to AD and results in the stigmatization of people living with AD, who are depicted as the living dead. Through the analysis of the Spanish documentary film by Ana Serret El señor Liberto y los pequeños placeres (2017), this essay explores a different way of depicting the life experience of the person with AD. It analyzes issues such as bodily communication through the senses and gestures, the persistence of habits and pleasures, as well as how the experience of time and space is presented on screen. The analysis of cinematographic techniques --the use of a static camera, the preponderance of long sequences and direct cuts, etc. sheds light on a new way of looking at the person with AD that highlights his/her selfhood.