The Intervals of Cinema

Cinema, like language, can be said to exist as a system of differences. In his latest book, acclaimed philosopher Jacques Rancire 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 literatures images and philosophy; and film rejects theatre, while also fulfilling theatres dream.

Built on these contradictions, the cinema is the real, material space in which one is moved by the spectacle of shadows. Thus, for Rancire, film is the perpetually disappointed dream of a language of images.