摘要
One of the most important tools in film analysis is ＂segmentation＂, as defined by the major film theorist Christian Metz, with the help of the ＂great syntagmatic＂ （Grande Syntagmatique）; an array, which will guarantee the classification of any kind of shot in any kind of film and its consequent decoding. The division into sections allowed a clinical approach of high validity, highlighting the hidden rhymes, the power of repetition, the underlying pulses of the film, ＂decoding＂, in a way, their soul; in essence their meaning. However, by the mid-1970s, the semiotics of cinema was considered outdated and unrealistic, mainly because it failed to solve a problem to which it was believed that it held the key to guarantee the ＂translation＂ of any abstract cinematic form. In this text, we attempt to explore what semiotics can do today and how far ＂segmentation＂ can take us in the face of a particularly ＂opaque＂ film, which is made of fragments of impressions, disparate elements and contrasts, such as The Tree of Life （2011） by Terrence Malick.
