The Brain Is the Screen

Deleuze and the Philosophy of Cinema

2000

Gregory Flaxman, editor

The first broad-ranging collection on Deleuze’s essential works on cinema.

In the nearly twenty years since their publication, Gilles Deleuze’s books about cinema have proven as daunting as they are enticing—a new aesthetics of film, one equally at home with Henri Bergson and Wim Wenders, Friedrich Nietzsche and Orson Welles, that also takes its place in the philosopher’s immense and difficult oeuvre. With this collection, the first to focus solely and extensively on Deleuze’s cinematic work, the nature and reach of that work finally become clear. Composed of a substantial introduction, twelve original essays produced for this volume, and a new English translation of a personal, intriguing, and little-known interview with Deleuze on his cinema books, The Brain Is the Screen is a sustained engagement with Deleuze’s cinematic philosophy that leads to a new view of the larger confrontation of philosophy with cinematic images.

Contributors: Éric Alliez, Dudley Andrew, Peter Canning, Tom Conley, András Bálint Kovács, Gregg Lambert, Laura U. Marks, Jean-Clet Martin, Angelo Restivo, Martin Schwab, and François Zourabichvili.

This book illuminates one of the most exciting events in philosophy and film theory—a major French philosopher writing detailed volumes on film—and extends knowledge of film, philosophy, and their relation in subtle and far-reaching ways.

Dana Polan, University of Southern California

In the nearly twenty years since their publication, Gilles Deleuze’s books about cinema have proven as daunting as they are enticing—a new aesthetics of film, one equally at home with Henri Bergson and Wim Wenders, Friedrich Nietzsche and Orson Welles, that also takes its place in the philosopher’s immense and difficult oeuvre. With this collection, the first to focus solely and extensively on Deleuze’s cinematic work, the nature and reach of that work finally become clear. Composed of a substantial introduction, twelve original essays produced for this volume, and a new English translation of a personal, intriguing, and little-known interview with Deleuze on his cinema books, The Brain Is the Screen is a sustained engagement with Deleuze’s cinematic philosophy that leads to a new view of the larger confrontation of philosophy with cinematic images.

Contributors: Éric Alliez, U of Vienna; Dudley Andrew, U of Iowa; Peter Canning; Tom Conley, Harvard U; András Bálint Kovács, ELTE U, Budapest; Gregg Lambert, Syracuse U; Laura U. Marks, Carleton U; Jean-Clet Martin, Collége International de Philosophie, Paris; Angelo Restivo; Martin Schwab, U of Michigan; François Zourabichvili, Collége International de Philosophie.


Gregory Flaxman is a doctoral student in the Program of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania.

This anthology makes an informed and necessary contribution to Deleuzean cinema studies in English, containing 12 essays and a concluding interview with Deleuze. This book is a major contribution to cinema studies and demonstrates clearly the relevance, applicability and pleasure that Deleuze makes possible as we learn to think with, not against, film.

Media International Australia

This book illuminates one of the most exciting events in philosophy and film theory—a major French philosopher writing detailed volumes on film—and extends knowledge of film, philosophy, and their relation in subtle and far-reaching ways.

Dana Polan, University of Southern California

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

GREGORY FLAXMAN
APPROACHING IMAGES

1. Of Images and Worlds: Toward a Geology of the Cinema JEAN-CLET MARTIN
2. Cinema Year Zero GREGORY FLAXMAN
3. Escape from the Image: Deleuze's Image-Ontology MARTIN SCHWAB
4. The Eye of Montage: Dziga Vertov and Bergsonian Materialism FRANCOIS ZOURABICHVILI
MAPPING IMAGES
5. The Film History of Thought ANDRAS BALINT KOVACS
6. Into the Breach: Between The. Movement-Image and The Time-Image ANGELO RESTIVO
7. Signs of the Time: Deleuze, Peirce, and the Documentary Image LAURA U.MARKS
8. The Roots of the Nomadic: Gilles Deleuze and the Cinema of West Africa DUDLEY ANDREW
THINKING IMAGES
9. Cinema and the Outside GREGG LAMBERT
10. Midday, Midnight: The Emergence of Cine-Thinking ERICALLIEZ
11. The Film Event: From Interval to Interstice TOM CONLEY
12. The Imagination of Immanence: An Ethics of Cinema PETER CANNING AFTER-IMAGE
13. The Brain Is the Screen: An Interview with Gilles Deleuze

Contributors

Index