Tom Lordan

The paper I propose to give enacts a three-pronged critique of Alain Badiou’s film-theoretical text ‘The False Movements of Cinema’ (FMC), an essay from the philosopher’s key compendium Handbook of Inaesthetics (1998). In so doing, I engage with/oppose Badiouan interlocutors John Mullarkey, Stephen Zepke, Alex Ling and Michelle Kelly.

The three problematics that compose this critique are the following:

• The problem of cinema as the ‘plus-one’ of the arts. This paper challenges Badiou’s charge of ‘inessentialism’, utilizing primarily the ontological specificity of assembly and secondarily the nature of the cinematic star in order to counter this claim.
• The problem of cinema as false movement. This paper traces the lineage of ‘cinema = false movement’ with respect to Deleuze and Bergson, in order to interrogate Badiou’s appropriation of this designation.
• The problem of cinema as an inaesthetic subject. This paper highlights the severe disjunction that exists between Badiou’s treatment of cinema and the proposed goals/criteria of inaesthetics as set forth in ‘Art and Philosophy’.

This paper draws the conclusion that, though deeply flawed, the logical lacunae of FMC may be due to inconsistencies immanent to inaesthetics. That is, were we to re-assess the classificatory stance of inaesthetics (a discourse in opposition to speculative aesthetics), highlighting the crucial role of resistance, we come to a processual understanding of the Badiouan conceptual determination of ‘truth’, operating (implicitly) within his philosophy of cinema. The becomingactivity of truth is an open problem in Badiou’s philosophy, touched upon by scholars such as Sam Gillespie, Hollis Phelps, Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier and Peter Hallward.

In order to complete our task in bringing this implicit operation to light, we will gesture toward its further manifestation in ‘Cinema as Philosophical Experimentation’, an essay found within Badiou’s recent collection Cinema (2010).

Tom Lordan obtained his BA in Film Theory & German from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland in 2013 and finished his MA in Aesthetics & Art Theory from Kingston University, England in 2015. His MA dissertation supervisor was the distinguished philosopher Catherine Malabou. The paper he is proposing is a refined version of his dissertation, awarded a 1^st. He has published one book review (»The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov«) in Film Matters, volume 5, issue 3. Also he will publish another book review (»Cinema and Agamben«) in Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image at the end of December 2015, in volume 7. In November 2015 he took part in a 5-day workshop/think-tank with the Lisbon-based art collective CADA, co-organised by the Berlin art publishing press Broken Dimanche Press and the UK’s premier art/technology institution FACT. He is currently writing a book review (»Elegy for Theory«) for »Film & History«. and applies for a research Masters in the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick, to begin in September 2016.