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SCREEN/PLAY
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SCREEN/PLAY
Derrida and Film Theory
Peter Brunette and David Wills
Princeton University Press
Princeton, NewJersey
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Copyright © 1989 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street, Princeton, NewJersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brunette, Peter.
Screen/play : Derrida and film theory /
Peter Brunette and David Wills.
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-691-05572-6 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-691-00846-9 (pbk.)
I. Motion pictures. 2. Film criticism. 3 Derrida, Jacques.
I. Wills, David, 1953- . II. Title.
PN1995.B764 1989
79i.43'oi—dc20 89-33404
CIP
Earlier versions of portions of this book origi
nally appeared as "Toward a Deconstructive The
ory of Film," Studies in the Literary Imagination 19,
ι (Spring 1986), 55-71; "Un Ecran dechire," Hors
cadre, no. 4 (Spring 1986), 75-91; and "Theories
of Spectacle/Spectacles ofTheory," Iconics (1987),
65-82. Permission to reprint sections of these ar
ticles is gratefully acknowledged
Publication of this book has been aided by the
Whitney Darrow Fund of Princeton University Press
This book has been composed in Linotron Bembo
Clothbound editions of Princeton University
Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and
binding materials are chosen for strength and du
rability. Paperbacks, although satisfactory for
personal collections, are not usually suitable for
library rebinding
Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton University Press,
Princeton, NewJersey
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To Lynne, finally, and to the memory
of three good friends: Gianfranco
DeLisio (1945-84), Frank DiFederico
(1933-87), and S. Eric Molin (1929-
87)
—P.B.
To Roberta
—D.W.
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
CHAPTER ONE Introduction 3
CHAPTER TWO Derrida and Contemporary Film Studies 3 3
CHAPTER THREE Film as Writing: From Analogy to Anagram 60
CHAPTER FOUR The Frame of the Frame 99
CHAPTER FIVE Black and Blue 139
CHAPTER six Cinema and the Postal 172
Works Cited 199
Index 207
VLL
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PREFACE
The pages that follow constitute an attempt to apply the work of
French philosopher Jacques Derrida, generally restricted thus far to lit
erary and philosophical questions, to considerations of film theory. We
want to make clear at the outset, however, that despite the fact that
what has come to be known as deconstruction in America has been
primarily concerned with the interpretation of texts, we have not been
especially interested, at least not in the present volume, in producing a
series of deconstructive readings of films. It is our experience that un
less they are elaborated or understood in a theoretical context, many
so-called deconstructive interpretations do not ultimately differ greatly
from their New Critical counterparts. We wish rather to begin the
process of "translation" of Derrida's work to Anglo-American film
theory by offering a certain reading of his texts, especially those writ
ten since Glas (1974), that have, for a variety of reasons, been largely
neglected by English-speaking literary theorists. Hence, with the ex
ception of chapter 5, in which we offer readings of two films (readings
that are, however, in no way meant to be "how-to" demonstrations of
a normative deconstructive methodology), we have for the most part
chosen to avoid discussing individual film texts. We have preferred in
stead to offer a tentative rationalization for a certain perspective on
contemporary film theory, and for a certain novel way of approaching
film texts anagrammatically, as it were, that has been repressed because
of the challenges it offers to the traditional institutional supports for
interpretation. We hope that as the argument proceeds, the reasons for
such decisions will become clearer. In any case, we have been con
scious throughout of having perhaps the first or, more likely, the sec
ond or third word on the relation of deconstruction and film, but
hardly the last. It is our hope that in the future we or others, in other
books, will be able to apply more specifically the general, somewhat
abstract elaborations of Derrida's work offered here.
This book had its beginning, one lovely spring day in 1984, on the
bright, tidy lawn of one of the colleges at the University of Toronto.
We had met earlier in the week as participants on what may very well
have been the first panel on deconstruction and film theory ever held
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