Philippe Grandrieux: Sonic Cinema

by Greg Hainge

Philippe Grandrieux is one of cinema's only living true radicals and feted as one of the most innovative and important film makers of his generation. His consistently controversial work remains, however, relatively unknown outside of the international art film festival circuit. In this volume, the first book-length study of the work of Grandrieux in any language, Greg Hainge provides an overview and critical analysis of Grandrieux's entire career during which he has produced works for television, video installations, photography, performance pieces, documentary films, short films and prize-winning feature films. As well as providing an overview, the book argues that a critical appraisal of his work necessarily leads us to problematize many of the critical orthodoxies that have been formed in recent times, to reject the concept of a haptic cinema and to supplant this instead with the idea of a sonic cinema.

Genres: Film

389 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 23, 2017

Reviews

[BonGard · Rating 3 out of 5]

گرندریو باعث شد من سمت مطالعه مداوم دلوز برم، پس همیشه ازش ممنونم و هاینج در این کتاب تمام ارجاعات فلسفی به دلوز، مورلوپونتی، لویناس و هایدگر رو برای تحلیل سینمای گرندریو به کار می‌بره اما جایی که برای من کتاب رو ارزشمند میشد صحبت‌های خود گرندریو درباره سینما و البته جاهایی که کتاب به فیلمنامه‌های گرندریو اشاره می‌کنه. تقسیم‌بندی فصول و تمرکز بنظرم یکدست نبود اما مسلمن کتاب برای طرفدارهای گرندریو نوشته شده نه کسانی که با مطالعه کتاب بخان سمت سینمای گرندریو برن. کتاب باعث شد سینمای گرندریو رو دوباره مرور کنم و ویدیوهایی که ازش ندیده بودم رو ببینم پس از هاینج هم کمی ممنون

[Christian Molenaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a piece of assemblage collecting quotes from Grandrieux discussing his own work, Sonic Cinema has immense value. Unfortunately, Hainge rarely ventures any deeper; even while he draws on Deleuze (primarily from The Logic of Sensation) and Agamben to support his claims, Hainge's commentary is almost entirely restricted to summary, detailing blow-by-blow the narrative beats of each of Grandrieux's films even as he (rightfully) points out in every chapter how the films resist traditional narratives and how to attempt to engage with the work on such terms is counterintuitive to their purpose. The inclusion of extracts from Grandrieux's impressionistic, poetic screenplays (inasmuch as his texts can be referred to as such) and brief dissections of how said scripts are represented visually are high points of the book, but given the extent to which Hainge directly quotes Grandrieux's much lengthier interviews with Brenez and Baldassari as well as the director's own writings, I find myself wishing I had simply been able to locate the primary sources myself.

[Ólafur Guðvarðarson · Rating 4 out of 5]

as a huge grandrieux fan this was an excellent read, though i find it quite odd to publish it in the middle of his filmography. maybe we get a “sequel” when grandrieux retires from filmmaking, but i’m honestly not looking forward to that. at all.

[Hsu Jui-Ting · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s great to see a book on Philippe Grandrieux and even more so to see someone clearly passionate on his works, but it is unfortunately undermined by the need to describe the happenstance of his films - understandable given their scarcity on home video (and other formats). More frustrating, too, is the early writing’s admission on not being quite as eloquent as others, which ends up undermining his relationship with the audience/reader in terms of scrutinization.

It is an honest effort and one that is readily welcomed; slight editing and restructuring (such as the use of “sonic cinema” and its explanation) could help bolster the argument some. The real fruit, hopefully, is exposing cinéastes and film theorists alike to Grandrieux’s works.