Alex Ling
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748641130
- eISBN:
- 9780748652631
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748641130.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book offers an in-depth examination of cinema and its philosophical significance. It employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship – ...
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This book offers an in-depth examination of cinema and its philosophical significance. It employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship – namely, ‘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. Second, he investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is, whether or not it is truly ‘artistic’. Finally, the author explores in what ways we can rethink the consequences of the fact that cinema thinks. In answering these questions, he uses well-known films ranging from Hiroshima mon amour to Vertigo to The Matrix to illustrate Badiou's philosophy, as well as to consider the ways in which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with respect to the medium of cinema.Less
This book offers an in-depth examination of cinema and its philosophical significance. It employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship – namely, ‘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. Second, he investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is, whether or not it is truly ‘artistic’. Finally, the author explores in what ways we can rethink the consequences of the fact that cinema thinks. In answering these questions, he uses well-known films ranging from Hiroshima mon amour to Vertigo to The Matrix to illustrate Badiou's philosophy, as well as to consider the ways in which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with respect to the medium of cinema.
Andrew deWaard and R. Colin Tait
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231165518
- eISBN:
- 9780231850391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231165518.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This introductory chapter explores the difficulties of pinning down any single defining trait of director Steven Soderbergh's extensive oeuvre. Apart from the scope of Soderbergh's films, anyone ...
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This introductory chapter explores the difficulties of pinning down any single defining trait of director Steven Soderbergh's extensive oeuvre. Apart from the scope of Soderbergh's films, anyone attempting a critical film scholarship on Soderbergh will find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer complexity and variety of their subject matter. Soderbergh's filmography covers a wide spectrum of themes and forms that to attempt to chronicle or summarise the ‘major’ elements and thematic periods of his work would overlook the equally important contributions his more ‘minor’ films have to offer. Most of all, Soderbergh's corpus contains many paradoxical elements that defy any attempts at scholarly classification. Yet this paradox in praxis also allows for a study of his oeuvre to be made, via dialectics — a method of reasoned argument in search of truth using the conflict of opposing forces.Less
This introductory chapter explores the difficulties of pinning down any single defining trait of director Steven Soderbergh's extensive oeuvre. Apart from the scope of Soderbergh's films, anyone attempting a critical film scholarship on Soderbergh will find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer complexity and variety of their subject matter. Soderbergh's filmography covers a wide spectrum of themes and forms that to attempt to chronicle or summarise the ‘major’ elements and thematic periods of his work would overlook the equally important contributions his more ‘minor’ films have to offer. Most of all, Soderbergh's corpus contains many paradoxical elements that defy any attempts at scholarly classification. Yet this paradox in praxis also allows for a study of his oeuvre to be made, via dialectics — a method of reasoned argument in search of truth using the conflict of opposing forces.
