The Utopia of Film: Cinema and Its Futures in Godard, Kluge, and TahimikThe 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). |
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Adorno aesthetic Alexander Kluge Alphaville appears Assault attempt Badiou Battleship Potemkin become Benjamin’s Brecht Brutality in Stone capture from DVD carabao cation Chris Marker collective composition of capital concept critique culture Dialectic of Enlightenment Eisenstein eodor erent ering essay existence experience fascism Film Socialisme Fredric Jameson Furious Yellow future German Geschichte und Eigensinn gure Hegel Histoire(s human idea ideology illusion interview ird Cinema ird World Jameson Jean-Luc Godard JLG/JLG Kidlat Tahimik labor landscape Lemmy lm’s lmic lmmakers Marker Marx Marx’s Media Minima Moralia montage nature Negative Dialectics Negt and Kluge notion object one’s Oskar Negt passage past Perfumed Nightmare Phantasie Philippines political possibility Potemkin present production public sphere realize rei cation scene sense shot signi cant Slavoj Žižek social Tahimik’s lms things tion transformation Turumba utopia utopia of lm viewer voice-over Yesterday Girl Žižek