The Virtual Life of Film

by D.N. Rodowick

As almost (or, truly, virtually) every aspect of making and viewing movies is replaced by digital technologies, even the notion of “watching a film” is fast becoming an anachronism. With the likely disappearance of celluloid film stock as a medium, and the emergence of new media competing for an audience, what will happen to cinema—and to cinema studies? In the first of two books exploring this question, D. N. Rodowick considers the fate of film and its role in the aesthetics and culture of moviemaking and viewing in the twenty-first century.

Here Rodowick proposes and examines three different critical responses to the disappearance of film in relation to other time-based media, and to the study of contemporary visual culture. Film, he suggests, occupies a special place in the genealogy of the arts of the virtual: while film disappears, cinema persists—at least in the narrative forms imagined by Hollywood since 1915. Rodowick also observes that most so-called “new media” are fashioned upon a cinematic metaphor. His book helps us see how digital technologies are serving, like television and video before them, to perpetuate the cinematic as the mature audiovisual culture of the twentieth century—and, at the same time, how they are preparing the emergence of a new audiovisual culture whose broad outlines we are only just beginning to distinguish.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Research, Theory

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

David Norman Rodowick is the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including The Virtual Life of Film and Gilles Deleuze’s Time Machine.

Reviews

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

many words and concepts that flew over my head but those that I did understand were very good. I should definitely add Barthes to my immediate reads

[Amanda]

since i am unemployed and reading a 1000+ page book, i will add my thesis readings to give myself some feeling of goodreads accomplishment lol. this is very academic but not totally impenetrable for you media nerds out there

[Will_llermo]

Plantea ideas y escenarios interesantes en torno a la diferencia entre cine digital y cine analógico. Más allá de eso, se nota demasiado que está escrito a la contra (de lo digital) y en esa cruzada cae en no pocos errores conceptuales y ontológicos de la materialidad y ciencia del cine (de los dos cines que dice que existen). Más allá de eso, se nota que tiene casi 20 años y no contempla, por voluntad propia o desconocimiento, casos de estudio que desacreditan sus ideas. No puede ser que casi la única película digital que usa como ejemplo sea El arca rusa. Cabe preguntarse si sus conclusiones tienen utilidad después de las películas que ha hecho Wang Bing los últimos 10 años.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting stuff. Especially when combined with Friedberg's Virtual Window. I've also never seen anyone lean so heaviliy on Cavell before. That said, an extremely dismissive review might suggest that the summarized version of this book says, "Film studies? No worries, gang! We're gonna be around for a loooooong time. (wink emoticon)"

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really useful ideas (and some really unuseful ones) about the world of film with the incorporation/overtaking by digital technologies.