Cinema, like language, can be said to exist as a system of differences.
In his latest book, acclaimed philosopher Jacques Rancière looks at
cinematic art in comparison to its corollary forms in literature and
theatre. From literature, he argues, cinema takes its narrative
conventions, while at the same time effacing literature's images and
philosophy; and film rejects theatre, while also fulfilling theatre's
dream.
Built on these contradictions, the cinema is the real, material space in
which one is moved by the spectacle of shadows. Thus, for Rancière, film
is the perpetually disappointed dream of a language of images.