E-Book Content
‘A highly original and insightful contribution to the study of both Deleuze and film studies.’ Professor Ian Buchanan, editor of Deleuze Studies 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 Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance Elena del Río ‘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. 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 Powers of Affection Elena del Río is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. Edinburgh ISBN: 978 0 7486 3525 2 Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.eup.ed.ac.uk Cover Image: The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant © Tango/The Kobal Collection Cover Design: Barrie Tullett Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance Elena del Río M1245 ELENA PRELIMS.qxp:Andy Q7 6/5/08 09:50 Page i Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance M1245 ELENA PRELIMS.qxp:Andy Q7 6/5/08 09:50 Page ii A mis queridos padres Victoria y Enrique M1245 ELENA PRELIMS.qxp:Andy Q7 6/5/08 09:50 Page iii Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance Powers of Affection Elena del Río Edinburgh University Press M1245 ELENA PRELIMS.qxp:Andy Q7 14/5/08 09:32 Page iv © Elena del Río, 2008 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Monotype Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn, Norfolk A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 3525