Roland Barthes and Film: Myth, Eroticism and Poetics, by Patrick ffrench

Abstract

Patrick ffrench’s Roland Barthes and Film: Myth, Eroticism and Poetics is dizzying in scope; at just under 300 pages, this newest addition to Bloomsbury’s “Film Thinks” series is dense and sinewy, with over 1,000 footnotes. While the book may not befor the casual Barthes fan, this is not a reflection on ffrench’s writing but rather an indication that Barthes’ philosophical attitude, including his foray into cinema, is persistently revisionary and complex. To borrow from ffrench, who borrows in turn from Gilles Deleuze, Barthes’ trajectory can be understood as one of “becoming-Barthes” (53). But who is it exactly that Barthes becomes?

Keywords

• roland
• barthes
• semiotics
• phenomenology
• cinema