Roland Barthes and Film: Myth, Eroticism and Poetics

329 Pages·2019·5.369 MB·English

by  Patrick ffrench

ROLAND BARTHES AND FILM
Series Editors:
Lúcia Nagib
Professor in Film at the University of Reading
Tiago de Luca
Associate Professor in Film & Television
Studies at the University of Warwick
Advisory Board:
Martine Beugnet, Université Diderot Paris
Thomas Elsaesser, University of Amsterdam
Catherine Grant, Birkbeck University
D.N. Rodowick, The University of Chicago
Ágnes Pethő, Sapientia University
David Martin-Jones, University of Glasgow
Philip Rosen, Brown University
Laura U. Marks, Simon Fraser University
Film Thinks is an original book series that asks: how has film influenced the way we
think? The books in this series are concise, engaging editions written by experts in film
history and theory, each focusing on a past or present philosopher, thinker or writer
whose intellectual landscape has been shaped by cinema. Film Thinks aims to further
understanding and appreciation, through sophisticated but accessible language, of the
thought derived from great films. Whilst explaining and interpreting these thinkers’ ideas
and the films at their origin, the series will celebrate cinema’s capacity to inspire and
entertain – and ultimately to change the world. Aimed at film fans as well as specialists,
Film Thinks is devoted to knowledge about cinema and philosophy as much as to the
pleasure of watching films.
Published and forthcoming in the Film Thinks series:
Adorno and Film: Thinking in Images
By James Hellings
Georges Didi-Huberman and Film: Politics of the Image
By Alison Smith
Noël Carroll and Film: A Philosophy of Art and Popular Culture
By Mario Slugan
Roland Barthes and Film: Myth, Eroticism and Poetics
By Patrick ffrench
Slavoj Žižek and Film: A Cinematic Ontology
By Christine Evans
Stanley Cavell and Film: Scepticism and Self-Reliance at the Cinema
By Catherine Wheatley
Queries, ideas and submissions to:
Series Editor: Professor Lúcia Nagib – [email protected]
Series Editor: Dr Tiago de Luca – [email protected]
Senior Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury: Anna Coatman –
[email protected]
ROLAND BARTHES AND FILM
Myth, Eroticism and Poetics
Patrick ffrench
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Patrick ffrench, 2020
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Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
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CONTENTS
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter 1
FILM AS MYTH AND FORM 19
The Face as Object 20
The Space of the Theatre 40
The Visible Surface of Things 48
Toward the Photogram 53
Chapter 2
FILMOLOGY AND SEMIOLOGY 63
Barthes and Filmology 63
Semiologies of the Image 76
Barthes and Cahiers du Cinéma: The 1963 Interview 84
Semiology and Cinema: The Image et Son Interview 91
Pesaro 1966 92
Chapter 3
THE THIRD MEANING 105
Barthes, Cahiers, and Tel Quel 105
Obvious and Obtuse 107
The Big Toe 119
The Filmic 124
Gesture and Tableau 126
Fetishist? 131
Chapter 4
BEYOND “THE THIRD MEANING” 139
The Photogram: Sylvie Pierre 140
Suppressed Emotion: Georges Didi-Huberman 144
Out of Frame: Raymonde Carasco and Gilles Deleuze 151
The Film-Work: Thierry Kuntzel 161
Toward the Punctum: Photography in Cahiers 168
vi Contents
Chapter 5
LEAVING THE CINEMA 179
Film as Jouissance: Figure and Voice 179
A Different Imaginary 185
Ravishment 198
Chapter 6
PHOTOGRAPHY, NOT CINEMA? 209
“This has been”: The Radical Difference between
Photography and Cinema 213
Blurring the Radical Difference 226
Chapter 7
DEAR ANTONIONI 247
Loving Vigilance 247
The Possibility of Happiness in the Modern World 252
Barthes and Antonioni in China 254
The Hum of Language 261
CONCLUSION 273
Barthes’ Cinema 276
Bibliography 280
Index 300
LIST OF FIGURES
1 Rudolph Valentino (Alamy Stock Images) 27
2 Audrey Hepburn (Alamy Stock Images) 28
3 Greta Garbo, from Robert Mamoulian, Queen Christina
(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1933) (Alamy Stock Images) 29
4 Carlo Battisti, from Vittorio de Sica, Umberto D. (Rizzoli-
De Sica-Amato, 1952) (Alamy Stock Images) 33
5 Charlie Chaplin (Alamy Stock Images) 37
6 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible I (Mosfilm,
1944) 111
7 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (Mosfilm,
1925) 113
8 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (Mosfilm,
1925) 113
9 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (Mosfilm,
1925) 114
10 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible I (Mosfilm,
1944) (Alamy Stock Images) 116
11 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (Mosfilm,
1925) 117
12 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin (Mosfilm,
1925) 117
13 Still from Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible II (Mosfilm,
1958) 121
14 Jacques-André Boiffard, The Big Toe (Male Subject, 30
years old) 123
15 Still from Carl Dreyer, Vampyr (Tobis Filmkunst, 1932)
(Alamy Stock Images) 127
16 Still from Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow Up (Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer, 1966) (Alamy Stock Images) 220
17 Still from Jean-Luc Godard, Vent d’est (Anouchka Films,
1970) 232
viii List of Figures
18 Still from Alfred Hitchcock, Under Capricorn
(Transatlantic Pictures, 1949) (Alamy Stock Images) 234
19 Still from Federico Fellini, Casanova (PEA, 1976) 236
20 Still from Michelangelo Antonioni, Chung-Kuo, China
(RAI, 1972) 261
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want first of all to acknowledge the inspirational example of Annette
Lavers, the first translator of Barthes and one of the finest and
most acute readers of his work, who first introduced me to it as an
undergraduate at University College London. Closer to the present,
Nikolaj Lübecker was instrumental in the initial stages of the book,
and in providing essential feedback at later stages. The editorial staff
at I.B. Tauris and Bloomsbury—Maddy Hamey-Thomas, Rebecca
Barden, Rebecca Richards, and Anna Coatman—have provided
excellent support throughout the whole process. Cinthya Lana offered
expert and invaluable help in procuring the images and permissions.
Roland-François Lack’s encyclopedic knowledge and generous advice
were crucial. Kate Ince kindly shared her work on filmology which
has informed my account. Barnaby Dicker has been an important
interlocutor throughout. Tom Baldwin’s friendship and intellectual
generosity have been invaluable. Thank you to Fabien Arribert-Narce
for the invitation to Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, and to Patrick
Crowley and Shirley Jordan, for the invitation to a conference in honor
of Michael Sheringham, where I presented early versions of some of
the chapters. I also thank the four anonymous reviewers enlisted by
Bloomsbury Press for their generous and incisive comments. Beyond
this the book has benefited from innumerable conversations and
exchanges around Barthes and cinema with colleagues and friends. This
list would be too long, but I would like to acknowledge the following in
particular: Catherine Wheatley, Colin McCabe, Diana Knight, Giovanni
Menegalle, Igor Reyner, James Williams, James Wishart, Jo Malt,
Johnnie Gratton, Jules O’ Dwyer, Lucy O’Meara, Mark Shiel, Michael
Sheringham, Nigel Saint, Richard Mason, Ros Murray, Simon Gaunt,
Simone Ventura, Sophie Eager, Timothy Matthews, Tom Baldwin, Tom
Gould. As always the Department of French at King’s College London
and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of which it is a part have been
a vital and convivial environment in which to work, and I thank all
of my friends and colleagues there. Finally I want to thank Sarah and
Laurence for bearing with me throughout the whole process and for
their grounding pragmatism and care.
***