Jacques Ranciere Intervals of Cinema

Annotation

An essential analysis of cinema from one of the great figures of French philosophy.Cinema, like language, can be said to exist as a system of differences. In his latest book, acclaimed philosopher Jacques Ranciere looks at cinematic art in comparison to its corollary forms in literature and theatre. From literature, he argues, cinema takes its narrative conventions, while at the same time effacing literature's images and philosophy; and film rejects theatre, while also fulfilling theatre's dream. Built on these contradictions, the cinema is the real, material space in which one is moved by the spectacle of shadows. Thus, for Ranciere, film is the perpetually disappointed dream of a language of images.