Badiou and Cinema

225 Pages·2010·0.92 MB·English

by  Alex Ling

‘As learned as it is exciting, Alex Ling has produced a textbook example A
of how to investigate Badiou’s Platonist Cinema with utter rigour le
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and fidelity. He provides readings of films that mix his own ingenuity

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with Badiou’s insights into the inessence of cinema. Yet Badiou and
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Cinema is more than simply an illustration of philosophical thought:
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it opens up the possibility of a truly thoughtful cinema, a cinema that
thinks events in its own way, beyond the exigencies of both extant

film theory and philosophy.’
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John Mullarkey, Professor of Film and Television, Kingston
University, London a
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Alex Ling seizes upon the philosophy of Alain Badiou to clarify i
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a central question in film scholarship: ‘can cinema be thought?’
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Treating this question on three levels, the author first asks if we
can really think what cinema is, at an ontological level. Second, he
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investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is,
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whether or not it is truly ‘artistic’. Finally he explores in what ways
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we can rethink the consequences of the fact that cinema thinks.

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In answering these questions, the author uses well-known films
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ranging from Hiroshima mon amour to Vertigo to The Matrix to n
illustrate Badiou’s philosophy as well as to consider the ways in e
which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with m
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respect to the medium of cinema. l
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Alex Ling lectures in the School of Culture and Communication at

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the University of Melbourne, Australia. L d
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ISBN: 978 0 7486 4113 0 e
Edinburgh University Press n
22 George Square
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Edinburgh, EH8 9LF C
www.euppublishing.com
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Cover image: Still, Modern Times. © Roy Export Company Establishment u
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Cover Design: Barrie Tullett gh
Badiou and Cinema
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The camera has been praised for extending the senses; it may, as the
world goes, deserve more praise for confi ning them, leaving room for
thought.
Stanley Cavell
The cinematograph never meant to create an event, but a vision.
Jean-Luc Godard
If people see one good fi lm in ten bad, they are coming nearer to pos-
session of the world.
Charlie Chaplin
I have faith in the cinema.
Alain Badiou
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Badiou and Cinema
Alex Ling
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Alex Ling, 2011
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in11/13pt Adobe Sabon
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 4113 0 (hardback)
The right of Alex Ling
to be identifi ed as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This publication is supported by a grant from the Research and Research Training Committee,
Faculty ofArts, the University of Melbourne
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Texts ix
Introduction: Gorky’s Maxim 1
1 Presenting Alain Badiou 14
2 Can Cinema be Thought? 32
3 In the Kingdom of Shadows 55
4 An Aesthetic of Truth 85
5 An Instant or an Eternity: Thinking Cinema After Deleuze 107
6 Alain Resnais and the Mise en Scène of Two 134
7 The Castle of Impurity 160
Conclusion: The Future of an Illusion 190
Bibliography 193
Filmography 206
Index 209
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Acknowledgements
A number of people have made this publication possible. First and
foremost I need to acknowledge the enormous debt owed to Justin
Clemens and Barbara Creed, without whom I would still be ‘immo-
bile in the dark’. Eternal thanks also go out to my friends, family
and colleagues, in particular A. J. Bartlett, Aurélien Mondon and
Anna-S ophie Maass, who provided invaluable help and support
throughout the project. I would also like to acknowledge the gener-
ous support of the staff at EUP, not least my excellent editor, Carol
Macdonald. Finally, extra special thanks to the collection of ‘misfi ts,
fl âneurs, détournés, pedants and miscreants’ that is the Melbourne
Badiou Reading Group.
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Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Texts
B Badiou: A Subject to Truth (Peter Hallward)
BE Being and Event (Alain Badiou)
C1 Cinema 1: The Movement- Image (Gilles Deleuze)
C2 Cinema 2: The Time- Image (Gilles Deleuze)
C Conditions (Alain Badiou)
CD ‘Cinema as a Democratic Emblem’ (Alain Badiou)
D Deleuze: The Clamor of Being (Alain Badiou)
DF ‘Dialectiques de la fable’ (Alain Badiou)
E Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (Alain Badiou)
FF Film Fables (Jacques Rancière)
HI Handbook of Inaesthetics (Alain Badiou)
IT Infi nite Thought: Truth and the Return of Philosophy (Alain
Badiou)
LW Logics of Worlds: Being and Event, 2 (Alain Badiou)
M Metapolitics (Alain Badiou)
MP Manifesto for Philosophy (Alain Badiou)
MS The Meaning of Sarkozy (Alain Badiou)
NN Number and Numbers (Alain Badiou)
OB On Beckett (Alain Badiou)
P Polemics (Alain Badiou)
PA The Politics of Aesthetics (Jacques Rancière)
SM Second manifeste pour la philosophie (Alain Badiou)
SP Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism (Alain Badiou)
S20 The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XX (Jacques Lacan)
TC The Century (Alain Badiou)
TO Briefi ngs on Existence (Alain Badiou)
TW Theoretical Writings (Alain Badiou)
WC1 What is Cinema?: Volume 1 (André Bazin)
WC2 What is Cinema?: Volume 2 (André Bazin)
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