The Utopia of Film : : Cinema and Its Futures in Godard, Kluge, and Tahimik / / Christopher Pavsek.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Pavsek, Christopher,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2013]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Film and Culture Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.) :; 37 illus.

The German filmmaker Alexander Kluge has long promoted cinema's relationship with the goals of human emancipation. Jean-Luc Godard and Filipino director Kidlat Tahimik also believe in cinema's ability to bring about what Theodor W. Adorno once called a "redeemed world." Situating the films of Godard, Tahimik, and Kluge within debates over social revolution, utopian ideals, and the unrealized potential of utopian thought and action, Christopher Pavsek showcases the strengths, weaknesses, and undeniable impact of their utopian visions on film's political evolution. He discusses Godard's Alphaville (1965) against Germany Year 90 Nine-Zero (1991) and JLG/JLG: Self-portrait in December (1994), and he conducts the first scholarly reading of Film Socialisme (2010). He considers Tahimik's virtually unknown masterpiece, I Am Furious Yellow (1981-1991), along with Perfumed Nightmare (1977) and Turumba (1983); and he constructs a dialogue between Kluge's Brutality in Stone (1961) and Yesterday Girl (1965) and his later The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time (1985) and Fruits of Trust (2009).

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Idea of Cinema -- 1. What Has Come to Pass for Cinema: From Early to Late Godard -- 2. Kidlat Tahimik's "Third World Projector" -- 3. The Actuality of Cinema: Alexander Kluge -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index