L’écran des Lumières: regards ciné-matographiques sur le XVIIIe siècle éd. par Martial Poirson, Laurence Schifano (review)

media.” Her study includes a number of late twentieth- and early twenty-first century auteurs, both well- and lesser-known, including Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Yamina Benguigui, Natacha Samuel, Michael Haneke, and Zabou Breitman. Drawing on diverse disciplines such as philosophy, history, historiography, literature, literary criticism, film studies, and neurobiology, McNeill explores the many ways in which film and memory intersect. Her analysis shows that even as some scholars and filmmakers are already proclaiming the death of cinema, some of the most basic questions surrounding it still have not been answered, not even “what is cinema?” Using the aforementioned forms of scholarly inquiry, McNeill addresses these questions and more as she illustrates how cinematic objects, faces, and spaces shape memory and vice versa. While much of her study could just as easily pertain to cinema as a whole, the author does take care to explain the particular significance of digital technologies, in keeping with the book’s title. These include production technologies such as lightweight, handheld cameras that allow for innovative, intimate filming, as well as digital editing processes that both facilitate and lay bare the mechanisms of montage and moving image creation. The revolution is no less profound for the spectator, with digital technology changing the very experience of watching a movie. Instead of crowding into a relatively anonymous, darkened room to watch a story unfold from beginning to end on a large screen, would-be spectators can now rent, buy, or copy a DVD or stream a movie on the Internet, then watch it, perhaps alone, on a screen of almost any size. The viewer can select isolated scenes or single frames, watch sequences in any order and at any speed, and turn the image off and on at will. Furthermore, conditions of production and reception are sometimes simultaneously transformed as a result of portable media technologies, which allow for the creation of museum exhibitions such as Varda’s L’île et elle and CD-ROMs like Marker’s Immemory. Throughout her study, McNeill emphasizes the ways in which film and memory alike imply a “radical virtuality,” with the digital technologies of “moving image media” being especially apt for highlighting the complex intersubjective processes that play out among the filmmaker, the spectator, and the subject/object of the film. This is true whether the subject/object be a person, as in an eye-witness account, a place, such as the evolving space of the city, or an object, by which McNeill most often means an item shown in the movie, although alternately, the object in question can be the film itself. Stills from various films illustrate these points in a way that words alone cannot. Memory and the Moving Image is densely written and thoroughly researched. These factors may make it a challenging read. However, it will be an excellent resource for advanced students in film studies, scholars specializing in cinema, and other researchers seeking to expand their knowledge of the septième art into the digital age. University of the Cumberlands (KY) Laura Dennis POIRSON, MARTIAL, et LAURENCE SCHIFANO, éd. L’écran des Lumières: regards cinématographiques sur le XVIIIe siècle. SVEC 2009:07. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7294-0971-1. Pp. 324. $130. Ce livre réunit quinze articles qui portent sur la représentation du dix-huitième Reviews 191 siècle au cinéma, suivis d’interviews d’un cinéaste, Benoît Jacquot, et d’un spécialiste de l’adaptation, Jean-Claude Carrière. Cette publication coïncide avec celle d’un autre volume collectif, Filmer le 18e siècle (Desjonquères, 2009), dirigé par le même tandem et dont la visée et bon nombre de collaborateurs sont les mêmes, bien que les contributions soient différentes. Parmi les sujets qui réapparaissent: les “origines” dix-huitièmistes du cinéma (la lanterne magique, la “fantasmagorie” de Robertson), les défis de l’adaptation, le Casanova de Fellini, Sade au cinéma, MarieAntoinette de Sophie Coppola, l’entichement pour la Révolution française sur grand et petit écrans, etc. L’écran des Lumières est structuré en cinq grandes...