Deleuze and the image of film theory

For Gilles Deleuze, the goal of film theory is to create concepts that relate only to cinemaConcepts proper to cinema, but which can only be formed philosophically (Bogue 2003: 2). The focus of this chapter, therefore, is on the use value of Deleuze for film studies. It considers some of the insights of his two Cinema books into the nature of the cinematic process, focusing in particular on cinemas privileged relationship to time. However, it also acknowledges the impossibility of separating Deleuzes writing on film from his wider body of work and examines how film theorists have productively applied his understanding of difference or the process of schizoanalysis to a variety of texts. Any understanding of Deleuzes impact upon film studies must necessarily address the relationship between his ideas and the other key explanatory frameworks that have dominated the discipline, in particular psychoanalysis. However, underlying any such comparisons or evaluations is the question of the nature of film theory and its proper goal. To this end, this chapter ultimately argues that Deleuze offers us an understanding of film theory as creative intervention and an ethical standpoint towards the history of the image which is predicated upon an adequate understanding of time.