European cinema and continental philosophy
film as thought experiment

"This groundbreaking volume for the Thinking Cinema series focuses on the extent to which contemporary cinema contributes to political and philosophical thinking about the future of Europe's core Enlightenment values. In light of the challenges of globalization, multi-cultural communities and post-nation state democracy, the book interrogates the borders of ethics and politics and roots itself in debates about post-secular, post-Enlightenment philosophy. By defining a cinema that knows that it is no longer a competitor to Hollywood (i.e. the classic self-other construction), Elsaesser also thinks past the kind of self-exoticism or auto-ethnography that is the perpetual temptation of such a co-produced, multi-platform 'national cinema as world cinema'. Discussing key filmmakers and philosophers, like: Claire Denis and Jean-Luc Nancy; Aki Kaurismk̃i, abjection and Julia Kristeva; Michael Haneke, the paradoxes of Christianity and Slavoj Zizek; Fatih Akin, Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancir̈e, Elsaesser is able to approach European cinema and assesses its key questions within a global context. His combination of political and philosophical thinking will surely ground the debate in film philosophy for years to come."--Bloomsbury Publishing

European cinema into the 21st century: enlarging the context? -- Film as thought: the "film and philosophy" debate -- Film as thought experiment -- "Europe": a thought experiment -- A cinema of abjection? -- Post-heroic narratives and the community-to-come -- Claire Denis, Jean-Luc Nancy and Beau Travail -- Hitting bottom: Aki Kaurismaki and the abject subject: The man without a past -- "Experimenting with death in life" : Fatih Akin and the ethical turn -- Black suns and a bright planet: Lars Von Trier's melancholia as thought experiment -- Anatomy lesson of a vanished country: Christian Petzold's Barbara -- Control, creative constraints and self contradiction: the global auteur