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Laura McMahon. Cinema and Contact: The Withdrawal of Touch in Nancy, Bresson, Duras and Denis. Oxford: Legenda, 2012. Pp. ix + 176.
Laura McMahon's lucid and tightly-organised set of arguments address what might seem at first glance to be a very tricky problem of critical architecture, namely, an effective bridging between such distinctive and idiosyncratic filmmakers as Robert Bresson, Marguerite Duras, and Claire Denis. The convincing way in which significant aspects of the work of these three cineastes are woven together in such an attractive fashion turns the overcoming of the apparent difficulties into a triumph. McMahon's prime critical tool is the French thinker Jean-Luc Nancy, whose well-known engagement with the oeuvre of Denis is subjected to a careful re-appraisal. In addition, some of the central planks of Nancy's...