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A collection of wide-ranging essays written throughout the 1990s, On the Body in General and the Figure in Particular: Figurative Invention in Cinema covers an array of genres and styles to propose an original method of cinematic analysis and interpretation foregrounding film's formal and plastic qualities in all their multifaceted materiality and aesthetics. Brenez reconsiders what a body on film can be and what constitutes a figure in cinema.
List of contents
Introduction;ç©art 1: Figurative Economies,� Why Must the Dead Be Killed?:Observations on John Woo,� Capitalism: Jack Smith, 3. "Unusual Approach to Bodies": Robert Bresson with Jean Eustache, Philippe Garrel, and Monte Hellman,� 4. Sketch/Skip/Excessive Synthesis: Jacques Tourneur's Cat People, Dario Argento's Suspiria, John McTiernan's Predator;ç©art 2: Adventures of the Classical Body in Modern Cinema,� S.M. Eisenstein, Bella Figura, and Formal Deflagration,� Anti-Bodies: Instances of the Classical Body in the Work of Jean Genet, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Gus Van Sant,� Short-Circuit: Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate;ç©art 3: New Abstractions in Figurative Invention,� The Contemporary Character,� The Being According to the Image: Orson Welles's Citizen Kane,� "'Cause it sounds more French": On a Secondary Character in Maurice Pialat's Police,� Thefts: Robert Bresson's Pickpocket;ç©art 4:ç¬ummonses - Figures of the Actor,� The Actor as Affective Citizen: Fassbinder's Beware of a Holy Whore,� Lassie, Unfaithful to Dogs: Fred M. Wilcox's Lassie Come Home,� "Die for Mr. Jensen": John Cassavetes's A Woman Under the Influence,� John Woo by John Woo: The Take and the Shot; Part 5: Image Circuits,� Travolta Himself: Dance and the Circulation of Images - Fantasy, Phantasm, and Phantasmata,� Thirst: Barbara Loden's Wanda,� The Visual Study: The Forces of a Cinematic Form - Al Razutis, Ken Jacobs, Brian De Palma,� The First Shot: Philippe Garrel's Libert�, la nuit,� Anti-Oedipus: John Woo's Heroes Shed No Tears;ç©art 6: Theoretical Invention,� "As You Are": Representation and Figuration - Questions of Terminology in the Work of Barthes, Eisenstein, Benjamin, and Epstein,� The Physics of Cinema: Introduction to the Literary and Filmic Oeuvre of Paul Sharits,� In the Meantime: Kirk Tougas' The Politics of Perception,� Epilogue: The Accident;çibliography; Index
About the author
Nicole Brenez is a professor of film studies at the University of Paris 3/Sorbonne Nouvelle and the Director of the Department "Analyse et Culture cinématographique" at Paris' film school La Fémis since 2017. She has curated avant-garde film series at the Cinémathèquefrançaise since 1996 and is the author and editor of numerous books on film.
