Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in Film
Philosophy has repeatedly denied cinema in order to grant it artistic status. Adorno, for example, defined an ‘uncinematic’ element in the negation of movement in modern cinema, ‘which constitutes its artistic character’. Similarly, Lyotard defended an ‘acinema’, which rather than selecting and excl...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Edinburgh University Press
2016-02-01
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| Series: | Film-Philosophy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/film.2016.0007 |
| _version_ | 1828854291292487680 |
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| author | Lúcia Nagib |
| author_facet | Lúcia Nagib |
| author_sort | Lúcia Nagib |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Philosophy has repeatedly denied cinema in order to grant it artistic status. Adorno, for example, defined an ‘uncinematic’ element in the negation of movement in modern cinema, ‘which constitutes its artistic character’. Similarly, Lyotard defended an ‘acinema’, which rather than selecting and excluding movements through editing, accepts what is ‘fortuitous, dirty, confused, unclear, poorly framed, overexposed’. In his Handbook of Inaesthetics, Badiou embraces a similar idea, by describing cinema as an ‘impure circulation’ that incorporates the other arts. Resonating with Bazin and his defence of ‘impure cinema’, that is, of cinema's interbreeding with other arts, Badiou seems to agree with him also in identifying the uncinematic as the location of the Real. This article will investigate the particular impurities of cinema that drive it beyond the specificities of the medium and into the realm of the other arts and the reality of life itself. Privileged examples will be drawn from various moments in film history and geography, starting with the analysis of two films by Jafar Panahi: This Is Not a Film (In film nist, 2011), whose anti-cinema stance in announced in its own title; and The Mirror (Aineh, 1997), another relentless exercise in self-negation. It goes on to examine Kenji Mizoguchi's deconstruction of cinematic acting in his exploration of the geidomono genre (films about theatre actors) in The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (Zangigku monogatari, 1939), and culminates in the conjuring of the physical experience of death through the systematic demolition of film genres in The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer et al., 2012). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T00:31:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d36ee016cc7640c4a3c6bda68cd4af2e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1466-4615 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T00:31:27Z |
| publishDate | 2016-02-01 |
| publisher | Edinburgh University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Film-Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj.art-d36ee016cc7640c4a3c6bda68cd4af2e2022-12-22T00:05:20ZengEdinburgh University PressFilm-Philosophy1466-46152016-02-0120113114810.3366/film.2016.0007Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in FilmLúcia Nagib0University of Reading ()Philosophy has repeatedly denied cinema in order to grant it artistic status. Adorno, for example, defined an ‘uncinematic’ element in the negation of movement in modern cinema, ‘which constitutes its artistic character’. Similarly, Lyotard defended an ‘acinema’, which rather than selecting and excluding movements through editing, accepts what is ‘fortuitous, dirty, confused, unclear, poorly framed, overexposed’. In his Handbook of Inaesthetics, Badiou embraces a similar idea, by describing cinema as an ‘impure circulation’ that incorporates the other arts. Resonating with Bazin and his defence of ‘impure cinema’, that is, of cinema's interbreeding with other arts, Badiou seems to agree with him also in identifying the uncinematic as the location of the Real. This article will investigate the particular impurities of cinema that drive it beyond the specificities of the medium and into the realm of the other arts and the reality of life itself. Privileged examples will be drawn from various moments in film history and geography, starting with the analysis of two films by Jafar Panahi: This Is Not a Film (In film nist, 2011), whose anti-cinema stance in announced in its own title; and The Mirror (Aineh, 1997), another relentless exercise in self-negation. It goes on to examine Kenji Mizoguchi's deconstruction of cinematic acting in his exploration of the geidomono genre (films about theatre actors) in The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (Zangigku monogatari, 1939), and culminates in the conjuring of the physical experience of death through the systematic demolition of film genres in The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer et al., 2012).https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/film.2016.0007LyotardBadiouAndré BazinJafar PanahiKenji MizoguchiThe Act of Killing |
| spellingShingle | Lúcia Nagib Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in Film Film-Philosophy Lyotard Badiou André Bazin Jafar Panahi Kenji Mizoguchi The Act of Killing |
| title | Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in Film |
| title_full | Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in Film |
| title_fullStr | Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in Film |
| title_full_unstemmed | Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in Film |
| title_short | Non-Cinema, or The Location of Politics in Film |
| title_sort | non cinema or the location of politics in film |
| topic | Lyotard Badiou André Bazin Jafar Panahi Kenji Mizoguchi The Act of Killing |
| url | https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/film.2016.0007 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lucianagib noncinemaorthelocationofpoliticsinfilm |