François Giraud – författare

«This fascinating study of gesture makes an original contribution to film studies through the persuasive insights it offers into the significance of gesture in its different manifestations in post-New Wave cinema. Meticulous analysis of an eclectic choice of examples and compelling meditations on wider questions of social conditioning, human memory and gender make this book essential reading.»(Dr Albertine Fox, Senior Lecturer in French Film, University of Bristol)Since the invention of cinema in the late nineteenth century, gesture has been a central preoccupation and source of innovation for early film pioneers and avant-garde filmmakers. A non-verbal form of expression and communication characterised by movement, gesture is a key theoretical concept in film analysis that raises crucial questions about the medium specificity of cinema. This book uses an interdisciplinary and intermedial approach to read gesture in terms of its interplay with film technology and its relations with the visual and performing arts.The author examines the aesthetics of gesture in a selection of films made during a complex historical and cultural period marked by the disintegration of the French New Wave, the uprisings of May 1968 and the decline of postwar economic prosperity. The book offers an in-depth study of the works of major and often under-explored French and Francophone filmmakers, artists, writers and intellectuals, including Chantal Akerman, Fernand Deligny, Jean-Luc Godard, Pierre Klossowski, Anne-Marie Miéville, Georges Perec, Bernard Queysanne, Jacques Rivette, Renaud Victor and Pierre Zucca. While revitalising the expression of gesture in modern sound cinema, their films developed radical ways of representing and revealing the impact of sociocultural conditioning on the body.

‘This book excellently advocates for considering intermediality not just as a hybrid form, but as a mode of critical thinking that emerges from versatile aesthetic strategies capable of intertwining multiple perspectives on complex issues and cultural connections in our world. A unique contribution to the field that maps out new and exciting areas of study.’ – Ágnes Pethő, Professor of Film Studies, Sapientia UniversityThis collection of essays asks what it means to think intermedially across art forms and media, continents and cultures, research fields and disciplines. Highlighting the intercultural and sociopolitical aspects of artistic creation, the contributors investigate intermedial practice as a potent means to interrogate constructions of identity, challenge power differentials, and unveil the ethical and aesthetic dimension of images. From the immersive visual attractions of the eighteenth-century eidophusikon to online drawing during the Covid-19 epidemic, the essays explore a diverse range of intermedial phenomena, including screen adaptation, the theatrical tableau, phototexts and cross-cultural translation. Casting new light on celebrated figures such as Louise Bourgeois, Marguerite Duras, Jacques Derrida, Orhan Pamuk and Yoko Tawada, as well as lesser-known artists, the book offers a unique perspective on intermediality as a vehicle for intercultural exchange and critical intervention.