filmmakingâtruly an âexhausting and cumbersome Victorian practiceâ (136), clinging poignantly to existence as digital technology slowly, steadily leeches its life away. Best of all, I canât remember a smarter defense of âescapismâ as a complex and valuable activity in modern life. As the so-called serious media obsess over self-fulfilling cycles of geopolitical conflict and violence, Hagin writes, ârunning off into the onanistic darkness of movie theaters ⦠is also a turning away from despair and indifference.â Viewed from this angle, moviegoing is âan engagement and disengagement with a politics of deathâ (10), and I think Hagin is on to something of real importance here. Paradoxically engaging and disengaging with that grim politics in all its depth, breadth, and intricacy might open promising paths toward Deleuzeâs admirable goal of thinking the unthought in cinema. DAViD STerriTT is chief book critic of Film Quarterly, chair of the national Society of Film critics, and film professor at columbia university, where he co-chairs the university Seminar on cinema and interdisciplinary interpretation. Book DATA karla oeler, A Grammar of Murder: Violent Scenes and Film Form. chicago: university of chicago Press, 2009. $80.00 cloth; $30.00 paper. 304 pages. Boaz Hagin, Death in Classical Hollywood
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