On the cusp of the twenty-first century, the notion of art as revelation of reality held sway in film aesthetics and criticism. Where did this seemingly naive belief in the vocation of art originate, what sustained it, and how did it shape the work of filmmakers, as diverse as Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, and Abbas Kiarostami? These questions launch this book’s exploration of the revelationist tradition from the 1950s to the early 2000s, revisiting a formative period in film history – from Italian Neorealism and the Nouvelle Vague to political modernism – and assessing its lasting impact on contemporary cinema. With the passing of its last major figures, Godard and Straub, in 2022, a critical reassessment of this tradition is timely.
- Cover
- Half Title
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Translations and Referencing
- Introduction
- Part I: Romantic Legacies in French Revelationist Film Criticism (1940s–1950s)
- Chapter 1: The Myth of Revelationist Poetry
- The German Romantic Origins of the Myth of Revelationist Poetry
- From the Revelationist Myth to the Ontology of Photography
- Revelationist poiesis in the Aesthetics of Bresson and Godard
- Chapter 2: Towards an Incarnationalist Realism
- Catholic Realism: Neither Naturalism, nor Symbolism
- The Revelation of the Spiritual through Gesture
- The Modern World: A Conspiracy against the Inner Life
- Chapter 3: The Romantic Paradox in Modern Cinema
- Doubts at the Heart of Ontological Film Criticism
- Retrieving the Origin through Reflexivity
- Infinite Criticism and the Essence of the Medium
- Part II: Revelationist Aesthetics in Modern and Contemporary Cinema (1960s–2000s)
- Chapter 4: Lyricism at the Heart of Political Modernism, 1967–89
- The Brechtian Paradigm
- Aesthetic Modernity and the Crisis of Representation
- Revelationist Poetry and the Revolution
- Chapter 5: Between Cinema’s Childhood and Demise, 1986–99
- Infancy of Art, Ethics of Looking
- Death of the Child, Exile of Modern Man
- Redemption through Sacrifice
- Chapter 6: Revelationist Poetry in Times of Need, 1989–2005
- Revelationism against the Backdrop of the Apocalypse
- Towards the Open: Conversions of the Look
- Discerning the Absence of God as an Absence
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
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