Badiou and Cinema

Alex Ling employs the philosophy of Alain Badiou to answer the question central to all serious film scholarship: 'can cinema be thought?' Treating this question on three levels, the author first asks if we can really think what cinema is, at an ontological level. Secondly, he investigates whether cinema can actually think for itself; that is, whether it is truly 'artistic'. Finally, he explores how we can rethink the consequences of a 'thinking' cinema. In addressing these questions, Ling uses well-known films such as Hiroshima Mon Amour, Vertigo and The Matrix to illustrate Badiou's philosophy and to consider the ways in which his work can be extended, critiqued and reframed with respect to the medium of cinema.