ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the figure of touch in relation to Jean-Luc Nancy's writings on the body, the image and cinema. Passing via notions of being-with, sense, technicity and the real, film spectatorship is reconfigured here in terms of co-exposure, sharing and singularities in contact. The book considers Marguerite Duras's interest in touch against the background of a negative politics of relationality dominating her film work throughout the 1970s. It examines three films by Claire Denis on which Nancy has written commentaries – Beau Travail, Trouble Every Day and L'Intrus – in order to negotiate the complexities of the exchange which takes place between film and philosophy. The book addresses Robert Bresson's exploration of touch in three films: Pickpocket, Au hasard Balthazar and Mouchette.
