The Place of Breath in Cinema

This is an exploration of the figuring of absence in film. This study considers the placement of the breathing body in the film experience and its implications for the study of embodiment in film and sensuous spectatorship. Davina Quinlivan shapes her engagement with film by the foregrounding of the human body in the filmic diegesis and the viewing experience. This emphasis on the human body as an breathing body coupled with its fresh engagement with continental philosophy, Post-Structuralist Film Theory and Contemporary Western Cinema, makes a unique and valuable contribution to the field. Case studies are taken from the work of major directors, including Cronenberg and von Trier. Key concepts explored are filmic space (air and the elemental in film), corporeality (bodies on screen and the film itself as a breathing body) and inter-subjectivity (community and sociality). It makes a notable contribution to the study of film sound and haptic perception.