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The Utopia Of Film: Cinema And Its Futures In Godard, Kluge, And TahimikStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionThe German filmmaker Alexander Kluge has long promoted cinema's relationship with the goals of human emancipation. Jean-Luc Godard and Filipino director Kidlat Tahimik also believe in cinema's ability to bring about what Theodor W. Adorno once called a "redeemed world," even in the face of new cultural and technological challenges. In three groundbreaking essays, Christopher Pavsek showcases these utopian visions, drawing attention to their strengths, weaknesses, and undeniable impact on film's political evolution. Pavsek approaches Godard, Tahimik, and Kluge as thinkers first, situating their films within debates over social revolution, utopian ideals, and the unrealized potential of utopian thought and action. He replays the battle these artists waged against Hollywood interests, the seduction of other digital media, and the privileging of mass entertainment over cinema's progressive, revolutionary roots. He discusses Godard's early work, Alphaville (1965), against his later films, Germany Year 90 Nine-Zero (1991) and JLG/JLG: Self-portrait in December (1994), and conducts the first scholarly reading of Film Socialisme (2010) and its new form of utopian optimism. Promotion infoThe Utopia of Film is not only about three filmmakers but concomitantly engages in current philosophical debates on the interconnected topics of utopia, failure, incompletedness and emancipation. Based on significant research and archival work, Pavsek presents new material and theories out of which he draws original insights and conclusions. He handles opaque and theoretically dense material with an ease and familiarity that renders it accessible and fascinating to the reader. -- Nora M. Alter, Temple University Built on foundational discussions of Alexander Kluge and Walter Benjamin, The Utopia of Film creates ingenious bridges among three remarkably different filmmakers, vividly and convincingly arguing formal and spectatorial strategies aimed at transforming not just cinema but contemporary culture. -- Timothy Corrigan, University of Pennsylvania ReviewsThe Utopia of Film is an impressive book, drawing together an intriguing set of materials to construct a sustained argument about both the "failures" of cinema and its Utopian afterlives. It is a book that people will read for all kinds of reasons, academic and otherwise, not least of which is its bold proposal that the future is unthinkable without cinema. -- Richard Dienst, author of The Bonds of Debt and Still Life in Real Time |