Description
Book SynopsisApplies Badiou''s philosophy to well-known films such as
Hiroshima Mon Amour,
Vertigo and
The MatrixAlex Ling employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship: ''can cinema be thought?'' Treating this question on three levels, the author first asks if we can really think what cinema is, at an ontological level. Secondly, he investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is, whether or not it is truly ''artistic''. Finally, he explores in what ways we can rethink the consequences of the fact that cinema thinks. In answering these questions, the author uses well-known films ranging to illustrate Badiou''s philosophy and to consider the ways in which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with respect to the medium of cinema.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Gorky's Maxim; 1. Presenting Alain Badiou; 2. Can Cinema Be Thought?; 3. In the Kingdom of Shadows; 4. An Aesthetic of Truth; 5. An Instant or an Eternity: Rethinking Cinema After Deleuze; 6. Alain Resnais and the Mise-en-Scene of Two; 7. The Castle of Impurity; Bibliography; Filmography; Index.
