Jacques Ranciere is Professor of Aesthetics and Politics at the University of Paris-VIII (St. Denis). His translated works include: The Politics of Aesthetics: The Limits of Art and Politics, The Philosopher and his Poor, Dis-agreement: Politics and Philosophy, and The Names of History. Translated from the French by Emiliano Battista, a doctoral student in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven and a free-lance translator.

'A remarkable and beautiful book which, with immense elegance, sets aside the difficulties of film theory to recreate a liberating, critical and poetic history of cinema.' Adrian Rifkin, Professor of Visual Culture Media, Middlesex University and Editor of the Art History journal 'What really sets this book apart is Ranciere's gifts as a writer and a fine-grain critic. His lapidary style spins out sentences of lyrical balance and scintillating intellectual density, shedding the ungainly baggage of so many academic texts. ...Like all the best books by philosophers on cinema, Ranciere's encourages us at once to think and to see these images anew.' Film Comment 'A compelling study that will leave an enduring mark on film and media studies.' Tom Conley, Harvard University An important exploration of the tensions, ruptures and continuities that complicate the twists and folds of the history of cinema. Geoffrey Whitehall, Theory & Event

• Prologue: A Thwarted Fable Part I: FABLES OF THE VISIBLE 1. Between the age of the theatre and the television age 2. Eisenstein's Madness 3. A Silent Tartuffe 4. From One Manhunt to Another: Fritz Lang Between Two Ages 5. The Child Director Part II: CLASSICAL NARRATIVE, ROMANTIC NARRATIVE 6. Some Things To Do: The Poetics of Anthony Mann 7. The Missing Shot: The Poetics of Nicholas Ray Part III: IF THERE IS A CINEMATOGRAPHIC MODERNITY 8. From One Image to Another? Deleuze and the Ages of Cinema 9. Falling Bodies: Rossellini's Physics 10. The Red of La Chinoise: Godard's Politics Part IV: FABLES OF THE CINEMA, (HI)STORIES OF A CENTURY 11. Documentary Fiction: Marker and the Fiction of Memory 12. A Fable Without a Moral: Godard, Cinema, (Hi)stories List of Films Sources and Acknowledgments