Cinema 1: the Movement Image

Within the discipline of cinema studies, Gilles Deleuze is best known for providing what he calls a “taxonomy” of the moving image. This course aims to look at the conditions of possibility that make this taxonomy possible: (1) cinema as a philosophy of technology; (2) cinema as a theory of perception; (3) cinema as a theory of aesthetics. “Cinema as theory” is a deliberate formulation: according to Deleuze, cinema is not an object to which philosophical analysis needs to be applied but rather itself the subject of philosophy. We will read the entirety of Deleuze’s first book of the two-part series: Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. This course will function as a foundation in Deleuzian cinema studies but likewise as an opportunity to see the history of the discipline through Deleuze’s unique contribution. We will also watch what Deleuze has watched. By the end of this course, we should have answers to two questions. First, why it is that cinema is philosophy’s subject rather than its object. Second, how we might extend and/or redevelop the Deleuzian taxonomy of the moving-image for the contemporary moment.