Abstract

This paper introduces a new approach to visual and cinema studies that redefines the idea of image in its traditional, aesthetical status. Among several philosophers that have got engaged in polemics with Deleuzian film theory, presented in the two-volume book "Cinema 1: The Movement-Image; Cinema 2: The Time-Image," Giorgio Agamben introduced a new theoretical proposition. He suggested replacing the fundamental aesthetical understanding of image with an ethical and political idea of the gesture. By criticizing Deleuzian semiotical taxonomy of images, he entered the discussion on contemporary film theory with a completely fresh approach. In this paper, I will not only present Agamben’s core ideas on film theory studies, but also explore the consequences of his theory on image studies in contemporary culture. Agambenian ideas do not focus only on film theory, but rather reflect specific conditions of society and culture that he has examined throughout his academic career.