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September 14, 20250 citations

On man who lives once every two times:

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JBJan Borowicz

Key Points

  • The film presents a unique narrative of a man who vanishes every other day, exploring psychological disintegration.
  • Key evidence shows that the protagonist's repeated disappearances lead to a diminished sense of aliveness and emotional connection.
  • Analysis connects the cinematographic structure with the narrative, illustrating severely damaged psychic states and their dissolution.
  • The potential transformation through love indicates a possible integration of the protagonist's fragmented mind and emotional experiences.

Abstract

The essay delineates a psychic phenomenon of incapacity to remain alive, as depicted in Jean-Charles Fitoussi's movie The Days When I Do Not Exist (2002). The film introduces a provocative thought experiment, illustrating the life of a man who vanishes every other day, only to reappear at precisely the same location twenty-four hours later. The author contends that this narrative serves as a poignant manifestation of the inability to metabolize emotions, thoughts, and memories, leading to their continual evacuation and ultimate loss. The recurrent disappearance of the protagonist diminishes his ability to feel alive, even upon his reentry into the world. This fragile psyche undergoes a potential transformation when the man falls in love, giving rise to the hope that the relationship with another human being may facilitate the integration of both the represented and unrepresented parts of his mind. An analysis of The Days When I Do Not Exist connects the cinematographic structure and the narrative plot to illustrate unrepresented states of severely damaged minds, which are under constant threat of dissolution.

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Cite This Study

Jan Borowicz (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/68c6df7533b72be0b5e43ea0https://doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2025.2518487
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