Raúl Ruiz: Poetics of Cinema (1995–) [EN, ES]

“Chilean filmmaker Raoul Ruiz is the author of some 100 feature-length films, along with numerous plays and multi-media installations. In Poetics of Cinema, Ruiz takes a fresh approach to the major themes haunting our audio-visual civilization: the filmic unconscious, questions of utopia, the inter-contamination of images, the art of the copy, the relations between artistic practices and institutions. Based on a series of lectures given at Duke University in North Carolina, Poetics of Cinema develops an acerbically witty critique of the reigning codes of cinematographic narration, principally derived from the dramatic theories set forth by Aristotle’s Poetics and characterized by Ruiz as the “central-conflict theory.” Ruiz’s knowledge of theology, philosophy, literature and the visual arts never outstrips his imagination. Poetics of Cinema not only offers a singularly pertinent analysis of the seventh art, but also shows us an entirely new way of writing and thinking about images.” (Source)

Translated by Brian Holmes (I) and Carlos Morreo (II)
Publisher Dis Voir, Paris, 1995 & 2007
ISBN 2906571385, 9782906571389 (I), & 2914563256, 9782914563253 (II)
124 & 111 pages
via depositio

Reviews: Michael Goddard (Senses of Cinema, 2004), Acquarello (2007).

Publisher (I), (II)
WorldCat (I), (II)

Poetics of Cinema, 1: Miscellanies (English, 1995; removed on 2015-7-15 upon request of the publisher)
Poetics of Cinema, 2 (English, 2007; removed on 2015-7-12 upon request of the publisher)
Poética del cine (Spanish, trans. Waldo Rojas, 2000, 9 MB)

For more by and about Ruiz see Film Studies For Free.