Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance - by Elena del Río (Paperback)

About the Book

The first study of the interface between Deleuzian theory and film performance.

Book Synopsis

The first study of the interface between Deleuzian theory and film performance.

From the Back Cover

This book offers a unique reconsideration of the performing body that privileges the notion of affective force over the notion of visual form at the centre of former theories of spectacle and performativity. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of the body, and on Deleuze-Spinoza's relevant concepts of affect and expression, Elena del Río examines a kind of cinema that she calls 'affective-performative'. The features of this cinema unfold via detailed and engaging discussions of the movements, gestures and speeds of the body in a variety of films by Douglas Sirk, Rainer W. Fassbinder, Sally Potter, Claire Denis, and David Lynch. Key to the book's engagement with performance is a consistent attention to the body's powers of affection. Grounding her analysis in these powers, del Río shows the insufficiency of former theoretical approaches in accounting for the transformative and creative capacities of the moving body of performance.

Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance will be of interest to any scholars and students of film concerned with bodily aspects of cinema, whether from a Deleuzian, a phenomenological, or a feminist perspective.

Features " The first study of the interface between Deleuzian theory and film performance. " A sustained consideration of the links between the body of performance and the body of affect. " A re-evaluation of central concepts in earlier film theory-from fetishistic spectacle and performativity to Brechtian distanciation, sadomasochism, and narcissism. " An analysis of the relation of the performative body to a feminist politics. " New readings of classical melodramas as well as contemporary independent cinemas.

Elena del Río is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Review Quotes

A highly original and insightful contribution to the study of both Deleuze and film studies.--Ian Buchanan, editor of Deleuze Studies

When Deleuze's books on cinema appeared in 1983 and 1985, some questioned the usefulness of his abstract theoretical distinctions for practical film criticism. With the appearance of Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance, skeptics need doubt no more. In this compelling analysis of works by Sirk, Fassbinder, Potter, Denis and Lynch, Elena del Río has combined elements of performance theory, feminism and various Deleuzian concepts to form an elegant analytic tool capable of illuminating the specific elements of a wide range of films. Without seeking to supplant the methodologies of cultural critique and psychoanalysis, del Río has argued persuasively for the existence of an affective dimension of cinematic images that exceeds and supplements the categories of these critical approaches. This is a truly innovative book that points the way toward the continuing development of a multifaceted Deleuzian approach to film criticism. Highly recommended.--Professor Ronald Bogue, The University of Georgia

About the Author

Elena del Río is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada.