Thresholds of vision: operative images and film corporealities in Eléonore Weber’s <i>Il n’y aura plus de nuit</i> and Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s <i>De Humani Corporis Fabrica</i>

Once confined to specific fields of expertise (sciences, medicine, surveillance, the military), operative images have started to populate our screens. In relation to the human body in particular (still the conventional measure and reference in film), there is no denying the capacity of these images to question and renew cinematic forms. In this article, I explore the ways in which operative images extend the boundaries of film aesthetics while troubling, in fundamental ways, the relation between the visible and the legible. Of particular interest will be Eléonore Weber’s Il n’y aura plus de nuit , 2020, and Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica , 2022, two films where operational imaging is prevalent, but comes from specific areas of activity resulting in distinctive visual productions and cultures: the military and the medical.