Band 25

Farocki/Godard. Film as Theory

Farocki/Godard. Film as Theory
Volker Pantenburg Farocki/Godard. Film as Theory

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2015, 292 Seiten, ISBN 978-9-0896-4891-4 Open Access Link.

This book brings together two major filmmakers-French New Wave master Jean-Luc Godard and German avant-gardist Harun Farocki-to explore the fundamental tension between theoretical abstraction and the capacities of film itself, a medium where everything seen onscreen is necessarily concrete. Volker Pantenburg shows how these two filmmakers explored the potential of combined shots and montage to create “film as theory.”

“This book focuses on a number of constellations, amongst which Godard/Farocki and Film/Thinking are the most important. Essential discussions from literary and film studies as well as image theory are presented alongside comparative analyses of specific image phenomena, which convincingly characterize filmic form as a genuine mode of thinking. In passing, Pantenburg reveals the extent to which contemporary image research needs to be an interdisciplinary endeavor. Instead of relying on one dominant discipline, he emphasizes the aesthetic force of films which succeed in constituting theory.” - Christa Blümlinger, Paris 8 University