The Cinepoetics Lectures are a series of lectures from the Center for Advanced Film Studies of the same name at the Freie Universtität Berlin, where film and media scholars from across the world are invited to present a selected film. The first Cinepoetics Lectures are to explore the connection between genre and affect. How do both “classic” and less traditional genres behave with regards to categories such as feeling, mood or atmosphere? How can these seemingly “soft” categories be grasped in analytical terms and interpreted? And which new insights are thus produced in relation to the – cultural and political – functions of the genre system? To start the series, we are showing the film LE FILS (The Son, Belgium/France 2002) by the Dardenne brothers. Thomas Elsaesser (Universiteit van Amsterdam) will introduce the film with a presentation about the “cinema of abjection” and the connection between affect, politics and ethics in European cinema. (jhb) (15.5.)
