Roland Barthes' Cinema offers the first systematic English-language critical treatment of Barthes' writing on cinema, reassessing the relevance of his work for a new generation of readers and filmgoers.

The most famous name in French literary circles from the late 1950s till his death in 1981, Roland Barthes maintained a contradictory rapport with the cinema. As a cultural critic, he warned of its surreptitious ability to lead the enthralled spectator toward an acceptance of a pre-given world. As a leftist, he understood that spectacle could be turned against itself and provoke deep questioning of that pre-given world. And as an extraordinarily sensitive human being, he relished the beauty of images and the community they could bring together.

[A] thoughtful book Watts approach uncovers unexpected riches in what have seemed to be minor moments in Barthes work. The book has chapters on film and myth, on film and perception, on Barthes and Bazin, on film and utopian politics, on film theory, on melodrama Roland Barthes Cinema also includes new translations (by Deborah Glassman) of nine of Barthes less well-known articles on film. s