The Rhythm of Images: Cinema beyond Measure

The Rhythm of Images is a rigorous and imaginative inquiry into the importance of rhythm for film and the moving image. Author Domietta Torlasco elaborates on a notion of rhythm in its pre-Socratic sense as a "manner of flowing," a fugitive mode that privileges contingency and calls up the forgotten fluidity of forms. She creatively draws on thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, and Luce Irigaray to redefine the relation between the aesthetic and the political, and thus a means of resistance to power. The book reconceives the relation between rhythm and the world-making power of images, envisioning cinema as a hybrid medium endowed with the capacity to reinvent corporeal boundaries and find new ways of living together.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 08 June 2021
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Focusing on a concept often overlooked in the study of film, The Rhythm of Images offers a rigorous and imaginative exploration of the vital importance of rhythm in the realm of cinema and the moving image. Author Domietta Torlasco delves into the depths of philosophy and cinema to develop a notion of rhythm in its pre-Socratic sense, as a "manner of flowing," a fugitive mode that privileges contingency and evokes the forgotten fluidity of forms. By asking what it would mean to take this rhythm as an ontological force in its own right, Torlasco draws on a diverse range of thinkers, including Giorgio Agamben, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, and Luce Irigaray, to forge a creative and thought-provoking perspective.

Rhythm emerges in this text as a form that defies measurement, serving as a key to redefining the relationship between aesthetics and politics. It becomes a powerful tool for resistance against power. Through her meticulous analysis of constellations of films and videos by international artists, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, Harun Farocki, and Victor Burgin, among others, Torlasco applies her distinctive concept of rhythm to four interrelated domains: life, labor, memory, and medium. With innovative readings of artworks and critical texts, The Rhythm of Images fashions a vibrant and provocative theory of rhythm as the excess or potential of perception.

In the final chapter, the book reconceives the relationship between rhythm and the world-making power of images. It presents a vision of cinema as a hybrid medium that possesses the capacity to reinvent corporeal boundaries and find new ways of living together. The Rhythm of Images is a groundbreaking work that challenges our understanding of rhythm and its role in shaping our perception and experience of the world. It offers a rich and thought-provoking exploration that will inspire scholars and enthusiasts alike.

Dimension: 216 x 140 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517910211