Post-Cinema

The idea of a post-cinema raises a central question: is the shift in filmmaking a complete break, or only a relative one? This book examines how far the change forms a single movement and how far it splits into several distinct approaches.

Its method is to fold the debate over post-cinema into the wider debate over post-art. The aim is to study how filmic images are now made under new conditions, often far from the setting of the movie theatre, and in closer contact with contemporary art.

The analysis proceeds on three fronts. It looks at how post-art has marked ordinary films. It considers the "relocation" of those same films (a term used by Cassetti), which can now be watched on many kinds of devices and in settings well outside the traditional theatre. And it traces the reverse movement, in which contemporary art absorbs cinema into many forms of creation and exhibition.