Cinema and Surveillance by Martin Blumenthal-Barby

Cinema and Surveillance by Martin Blumenthal-Barby

Cinema and Surveillance: The Asymmetric Gaze shows how key modern filmmakers challenge and disturb the relation between film and surveillance, medium and message. Assembling readings of films by Harun Farocki, Michael Haneke, and Fritz Lang, the book considers surveillance in such different domains as urban life, religious doctrine, and law enforcement. With surveillance present in the modern world as both a technological phenomenon and a social practice, the author shows how cinema, as a visual medium, presents highly sophisticated analyses of surveillance. He suggests that “surveillance” is less an issue to be tackled from a secure spectatorial position than an experience to be rendered, an event to be dealt with. Far from offering a general model of spectatorship, the book explores how narrative moments of surveillance are complicated by specific spectatorial responses. In its intersection of well-known figures and a highly topical issue, this book will have broad appeal, especially, but not exclusively, among students and scholars in film studies, media studies, German studies, European studies, art history, and political theory.

Martin Blumenthal-Barby is a Professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures at Rice University, where he also co-directs the Program in Cinema and Media Studies.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781032135564
ISBN 10	1032135565
Title	Cinema and Surveillance
Author	Martin Blumenthal-Barby
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Routledge
Year published	2025-12-26
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.