Badiou and Cinema

By: Alex Ling

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Synopsis: This book offers an in-depth examination of cinema and its philosophical significance. Alex Ling employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship - namely, 'can cinema be thought?' Treating this question on three levels, the author first asks if we can really think what cinema is, at an ontological level. Second, he investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is, whether or not it is truly 'artistic'. Finally he explores in what ways we can rethink the consequences of the fact that cinema thinks. In answering these questions, the author uses well-known films ranging from Hiroshima mon amour to Vertigo to The Matrix to illustrate Badiou's philosophy as well as to consider the ways in which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with respect to the medium of cinema.