Resonant Bodies in Contemporary European Art Cinema

What does it mean to exist, in our experience of cinema, according to listening? How do sound and 'noise' reconfigure relations between spectators and screens, and by extension, spectators and their worlds? How do films raise questions about the ethics and politics of listening to different bodies?
Resonant Bodies in Contemporary European Art Cinema answers these questions through an analysis of films by Catherine Breillat, Gaspar Noe, Tony Gatlif, Arnaud des Pallieres, Lars von Trier and Peter Strickland. These post-millennial European directors have worked with sound in ways that resist the full-definition and perfect hearing offered by Dolby technology. Instead, they have privileged 'noise' - sounds that take us to the limit of what we can hear - in a move that foregrounds the body on screen and constructs spectators as listening bodies.

“Taking us on a thrilling journey through sound, Emilja Talijan exploreswhat it means to become 'all ears' in the experience of film. With eloquence and erudition, she articulates new critical perspectives on noise and listening, making this essential reading within both film and sound studies. An altogether exquisite book.”

Taking us on a thrilling journey through sound, Emilija Talijan explores what it means to become 'all ears' in the experience of film. With eloquence and erudition, she articulates new critical perspectives on noise and listening, making this essential reading within both film and sound studies. An altogether exquisite book.

This film-philosophical foray into a range of fascinating sonic problems--the aesthetics of volume, Foley as a formal restraint, violence and vibration, the nonhuman dimension of rustling--compellingly models the book's thesis that listening is a radical mode of attention, and that deep attention is a form of thinking itself.

Emilija Talijan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oford.

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