Memory and Survival the French Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski (Legenda/Research Monographs in French Studies, 7)

The final French-language films of the great Polish director, Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941-1996) have indelibly marked the past decade. His cinema has renewed the representation of the human subject and emotion in film: space and luminous surface reveal the finest, most fragile impressions of states of mind and human consciousness. This study is the first to offer specific focus on Kieslowski s La Double Vie de V ronique and Trois Couleurs (Bleu, Blanc, Rouge), and their place within the broader context of French film-making. Engaging with Gilles Deleuze s discussions of the time-image, and recent work in trauma theory, Emma Wilson offers radical insights into Kieslowski s explorations of memory, temporality, loss and desire. Memory and Survival is a highly charged defence of Kieslowski s work, and proposes a major new reading of this cinema of blind chance and fleeting beauty.