1
/
of
1
Jiri Anger
Towards a Film Theory from Below: Archival Film and the Aesthetics of the Crack-Up
Towards a Film Theory from Below: Archival Film and the Aesthetics of the Crack-Up
ORDERED FOR YOU
We can order this item for you. Delivery usually takes about 4 to 6 weeks.
This item is not held in our immediate stock. We will order it for you after checkout.
Estimated delivery: About 4 to 6 weeks
Regular price
£29.75 GBP
Regular price
Sale price
£29.75 GBP
Unit price
/
per
Taxes included.
Shipping calculated at checkout.
- Condition: Brand new
- UK Delivery times: Usually arrives within 2 - 3 working days
- UK Shipping: Fee starts at £3.89. Subject to product weight & dimension
Bulk ordering. Want 15 or more copies? Get a personalised quote and bigger discounts. Learn more about bulk orders.
Couldn't load pickup availability
- More about Towards a Film Theory from Below: Archival Film and the Aesthetics of the Crack-Up
Operating between film theory, media philosophy, archival practice, and audiovisual research,JiriAnger focuses on the relationship between figuration and materiality in early films, experimental found footage cinema, and video essays.
Would it be possible to do film theory from below, through the perspective of moving-image objects, of their multifarious details and facets, however marginal, unintentional, or aleatory they might be? Could we treat scratches, stains, and shakes in archival footage as speculatively and aesthetically generative features? Do these material actors have the capacity to create "weird shapes" within the figurative image that decenter, distort, and transform the existing conceptual and methodological frameworks?
Building on his theoretical as well as practical experience with the recently digitized corpus of the first Czech films, created by Jan Kríženecký between 1898 and 1911, the author demonstrates how technological defects and accidents in archival films shape their aesthetic function and our understanding of the materiality of film in the digital age. The specific clashes between the figurative and material spheres are understood through the concept of a "crack-up." This term, developed by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and theoretically reimagined by Gilles Deleuze, allows us to capture the convoluted relationship between figuration and materiality as inherent to the medium of film, containing negativity and productivity, difference and simultaneity, contingency and fate, at the same time, even within the tiniest cinematic units.
Would it be possible to do film theory from below, through the perspective of moving-image objects, of their multifarious details and facets, however marginal, unintentional, or aleatory they might be? Could we treat scratches, stains, and shakes in archival footage as speculatively and aesthetically generative features? Do these material actors have the capacity to create "weird shapes" within the figurative image that decenter, distort, and transform the existing conceptual and methodological frameworks?
Building on his theoretical as well as practical experience with the recently digitized corpus of the first Czech films, created by Jan Kríženecký between 1898 and 1911, the author demonstrates how technological defects and accidents in archival films shape their aesthetic function and our understanding of the materiality of film in the digital age. The specific clashes between the figurative and material spheres are understood through the concept of a "crack-up." This term, developed by Francis Scott Fitzgerald and theoretically reimagined by Gilles Deleuze, allows us to capture the convoluted relationship between figuration and materiality as inherent to the medium of film, containing negativity and productivity, difference and simultaneity, contingency and fate, at the same time, even within the tiniest cinematic units.
- Publication date: 11 December 2025
- Page count: 232
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Format: Paperback
- ISBN-13: 9798765107270
UK and International shipping information
UK and International shipping information
We deliver throughout the United Kingdom and to 128 countries and territories worldwide, including the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain and France.
