Anthropomorphism and scenario

Anthropomorphism dominates cinema, attributing human traits to non-humans. Faced with the Anthropocene, it is crucial to move beyond this perspective to tell the world differently, by exploring non-anthropocentric narrative logics. An invitation to reinvent storytelling.

In films featuring non-human actors—animals, nature, climatic phenomena, machines, etc.—anthropomorphism is the norm. This means that non-human elements are endowed by screenwriters with human psychological traits so that audiences can understand them: animals have feelings identical to humans, objects come to life like little humans, and so on. Often, non-humans gain humanity: initially, they are a kind of non-human savage, and gradually, they discover and adopt human emotions and values, as if emancipating themselves from their raw nature. In short, anthropomorphism represents the ideal of life.

Thus, in academic cinema, reality is anthropocentric. Yet today, with concepts like the Anthropocene, we have come to realize that the culture needed to free ourselves from the destruction of our environment—which could lead to our own destruction—requires telling the world by moving beyond anthropomorphism.

Stories and fiction help us represent our world. As storytellers, we therefore have an important responsibility; the way we tell stories is crucial, in reality. It seems essential to me to move beyond anthropomorphism in films and to dare to explore other logics than human psychology to advance narratives. It’s about stopping projecting our feelings onto stones, clouds, dogs, or lions.

But how? This requires a work of observation, even directly by oneself, if only by taking the time to look at the sky. For example, instead of projecting onto the climate a logic of divine punishment—which is purely anthropomorphic—we could try to feel a connection to a non-psychologized logic, perhaps a more organic one. Trying to open within ourselves the space to invent new ways of telling stories.

I do not have the solution or the narrative modality suited to the “non-anthropomorphic,” and that is precisely what makes it exciting. As a screenwriter, it is stimulating to look around us, rather than within ourselves, to observe, to feel, and to try to adopt other modalities of behavior and explanations of phenomena than anthropomorphic and psychologizing approaches.

We can also draw inspiration from authors or scientific researchers to tell the world differently. For example, Bruno Latour’s work on systems of interaction between humans and non-humans opens up astonishing narrative perspectives. From there, I am convinced that we can invent subjects and ways of storytelling capable of speaking to the widest audience.

I do not believe that the only ways to make stories work are anthropomorphic. On the contrary, audiences can certainly be captivated by other narrative regimes.