Contemporary philosophy, from Nietzsche to Heidegger, has put into question the idea of the thing in itself, of the real world, of being as presence and, therefore, it has left behind the conviction in the existence of an objective reality. This change of theoretical framework reduces the credibility of the criticism that considers the film image as something that is transferred from the thing to the film. In order to offer a more productive interpretation of films, this is replaced by the concept of simulacrum, as elaborated by the Novecento philosophy (from Deleuze to Baudrillard or Foucault) over the trail of previous thought. The film image is, in fact, an image-simulacrum, a differential copy of a differential copy without a model. It is an illusory image, carried out to guarantee a deceptive effect in the spectator. The image is characterized by both a resemblance and a difference in relation to the world. Every passage of the mise en scene, from the pre-filmic film code to the final image, is marked by difference, which constitutes the moment of signifying and of formal qualification of the image itself. Parole chiave: Simulacro. Illusione. Copia, Somiglianza. Differenza. Resumen La filosofia contemporanea, de Nietzsche a Heidegger ha puesto en cuestion la idea de cosa en si, de mundo real, del ser como presencia y ha casi superado la conviccion de la existencia de una realidad objetiva. Este cambio de marco de referencia teorico resta credibilidad a la critica que considera la imagen filmica como algo transferido de la cosa a la pelicula. En lugar de ello para interpretar el film de forma mas productiva aparece el concepto de simulacro elaborado por la filosofia del Novecento, de Deleuze a Baudrillard o Foucault, sobre la estela del pensamiento anterior. La imagen filmica es sobre todo una imagen simulacro, una copia diferencial de una copia diferencial sin modelo. Es una imagen ilusoria, realizada para garantizar en el espectador un efecto de engano. Esta caracterizada por la semejanza y la diferencia respecto del mundo. Cada pasaje de la puesta en escena, desde el prefilmico codigo filmico, a la imagen final esta marcada por la diferencia, que constituiria tambien su propio momento de cualificacion significante y formal de la imagen misma. Palabras clave: Simulacro. Ilusion. Copia. Semejanza. Diferencia. La fine del mondo vero Da Blade Runner a Matrix, da Videodrome a Total Recall, da Alien a Bodysnatcher, da Edward Scissorhands a Exsistenz, da Minority Report a Back to the Future, il cinema contemporaneo e sistematicamente attraversato dalle presenze piu o meno inquietanti di doppi dell’umano, di automi, di repli06.Paolo Berteto.qxp 26/01/2010 9:37 PAEgina 87