Angelos Koutsourakis is Professor in Film and Cultural Studies at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, University of Leeds. He is the author of Kafkaesque Cinema (2024), Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema (2018), Politics as Form in Lars von Trier (2013) and the co-editor of Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (2020), and The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (2015).

Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema is an important study both for Brecht scholarship and film criticism. It not only demonstrates the continuing relevance of Brecht for cinema, it also returns to and literally "rethinks" established approaches. The theoretical work, in particular, is nothing short of formidable in its scope and depth.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1: Brechtian Film TheoryChapter 1: Key ConceptsThe DialecticThe Individual as a NexusThe Gestic Principle: Between Brecht, Eisenstein, and DeleuzeGestus and Cultural Techniques‘Humour is a Sense of Distance’Chapter 2: Photography and FilmThe Photographic ImageThe Apparatus and the Agency of the MachineChapter 3: Modernism as RealismBrecht, Bazin, and LukácsOn Sound/MusicSome Thoughts on Brecht and GenreChapter 4: Brecht in Film TheoryFrom Close Up to the Grand TheoryNoël BurchThe Cognitivist CritiqueRancière and the post-BrechtianPart 2: Brechtian Cinema The Revisionist History Film Chapter 5: Re-visioning HistoryDefining the Revisionist History FilmTotality is history: Szegénylegények (The Round-Up, 1966) and Allonsanfàn (1974)Chapter 6: Revisiting National TraumasDealing with Fascism: Professor Mamlock (1961), Das schreckliche Mädchen (The Nasty Girl, 1990)Epic Cinema: Ο Θίασος (The Travelling Players, 1975), 1900 (1976)The Essay FilmChapter 7: Beyond Auteurism: the Dialectics of the Essay FilmThe Disappearance of the Subject in WritingRepresentation as Unfinished Material: Thomas Heise’s Material (2009)Chapter 8: Pedagogical Essay FilmsAgitprop and the Crisis: Brecht die Macht der Manipulateure (Break the Power of the Manipulators, 1967), Fascism Inc. (2014)The Lehrstück on Film: La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000), The Act of Killing (2012)Cinemas of CrueltyChapter 9: Brecht and ArtaudThe Politics of Cruelty: Brecht and ArtaudFrom Theatre to Film: The Brig (1964), Marat/Sade (1967)Chapter 10: Cruelty as Anti‐commodityEveryday Fascism: Import/Export (2007), The Rebellion of Red Maria (2011)The Postdramatic on Screen: Katzelmacher (1969), Die linkshändige Frau (The Left‐handed Woman, 1978)EpilogueBibliographyIndex

Angelos Koutsourakis is Professor in Film and Cultural Studies at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, University of Leeds. He is the author of Kafkaesque Cinema (2024), Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema (2018), Politics as Form in Lars von Trier (2013) and the co-editor of Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (2020), and The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (2015).

Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema is an important study both for Brecht scholarship and film criticism. It not only demonstrates the continuing relevance of Brecht for cinema, it also returns to and literally "rethinks" established approaches. The theoretical work, in particular, is nothing short of formidable in its scope and depth.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1: Brechtian Film TheoryChapter 1: Key ConceptsThe DialecticThe Individual as a NexusThe Gestic Principle: Between Brecht, Eisenstein, and DeleuzeGestus and Cultural Techniques‘Humour is a Sense of Distance’Chapter 2: Photography and FilmThe Photographic ImageThe Apparatus and the Agency of the MachineChapter 3: Modernism as RealismBrecht, Bazin, and LukácsOn Sound/MusicSome Thoughts on Brecht and GenreChapter 4: Brecht in Film TheoryFrom Close Up to the Grand TheoryNoël BurchThe Cognitivist CritiqueRancière and the post-BrechtianPart 2: Brechtian Cinema The Revisionist History Film Chapter 5: Re-visioning HistoryDefining the Revisionist History FilmTotality is history: Szegénylegények (The Round-Up, 1966) and Allonsanfàn (1974)Chapter 6: Revisiting National TraumasDealing with Fascism: Professor Mamlock (1961), Das schreckliche Mädchen (The Nasty Girl, 1990)Epic Cinema: Ο Θίασος (The Travelling Players, 1975), 1900 (1976)The Essay FilmChapter 7: Beyond Auteurism: the Dialectics of the Essay FilmThe Disappearance of the Subject in WritingRepresentation as Unfinished Material: Thomas Heise’s Material (2009)Chapter 8: Pedagogical Essay FilmsAgitprop and the Crisis: Brecht die Macht der Manipulateure (Break the Power of the Manipulators, 1967), Fascism Inc. (2014)The Lehrstück on Film: La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000), The Act of Killing (2012)Cinemas of CrueltyChapter 9: Brecht and ArtaudThe Politics of Cruelty: Brecht and ArtaudFrom Theatre to Film: The Brig (1964), Marat/Sade (1967)Chapter 10: Cruelty as Anti‐commodityEveryday Fascism: Import/Export (2007), The Rebellion of Red Maria (2011)The Postdramatic on Screen: Katzelmacher (1969), Die linkshändige Frau (The Left‐handed Woman, 1978)EpilogueBibliographyIndex

Angelos Koutsourakis is Professor in Film and Cultural Studies at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, University of Leeds. He is the author of Kafkaesque Cinema (2024), Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema (2018), Politics as Form in Lars von Trier (2013) and the co-editor of Cinema of Crisis: Film and Contemporary Europe (2020), and The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos (2015).

Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema is an important study both for Brecht scholarship and film criticism. It not only demonstrates the continuing relevance of Brecht for cinema, it also returns to and literally "rethinks" established approaches. The theoretical work, in particular, is nothing short of formidable in its scope and depth.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1: Brechtian Film TheoryChapter 1: Key ConceptsThe DialecticThe Individual as a NexusThe Gestic Principle: Between Brecht, Eisenstein, and DeleuzeGestus and Cultural Techniques‘Humour is a Sense of Distance’Chapter 2: Photography and FilmThe Photographic ImageThe Apparatus and the Agency of the MachineChapter 3: Modernism as RealismBrecht, Bazin, and LukácsOn Sound/MusicSome Thoughts on Brecht and GenreChapter 4: Brecht in Film TheoryFrom Close Up to the Grand TheoryNoël BurchThe Cognitivist CritiqueRancière and the post-BrechtianPart 2: Brechtian Cinema The Revisionist History Film Chapter 5: Re-visioning HistoryDefining the Revisionist History FilmTotality is history: Szegénylegények (The Round-Up, 1966) and Allonsanfàn (1974)Chapter 6: Revisiting National TraumasDealing with Fascism: Professor Mamlock (1961), Das schreckliche Mädchen (The Nasty Girl, 1990)Epic Cinema: Ο Θίασος (The Travelling Players, 1975), 1900 (1976)The Essay FilmChapter 7: Beyond Auteurism: the Dialectics of the Essay FilmThe Disappearance of the Subject in WritingRepresentation as Unfinished Material: Thomas Heise’s Material (2009)Chapter 8: Pedagogical Essay FilmsAgitprop and the Crisis: Brecht die Macht der Manipulateure (Break the Power of the Manipulators, 1967), Fascism Inc. (2014)The Lehrstück on Film: La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000), The Act of Killing (2012)Cinemas of CrueltyChapter 9: Brecht and ArtaudThe Politics of Cruelty: Brecht and ArtaudFrom Theatre to Film: The Brig (1964), Marat/Sade (1967)Chapter 10: Cruelty as Anti‐commodityEveryday Fascism: Import/Export (2007), The Rebellion of Red Maria (2011)The Postdramatic on Screen: Katzelmacher (1969), Die linkshändige Frau (The Left‐handed Woman, 1978)EpilogueBibliographyIndex