The Realistic Method and the “Filmic”

Abstract

This chapter assesses the last remaining, untranslated portions from Alexander Kluge's aforementioned essay collection of 1975 on antagonistic realism, Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin. People usually learn about the deductive method in educational institutions. Starting with laws, rules, and values, people then descend to their application or illustrate them with examples. Reality is represented. The principle of illustration is that abstraction regulates concretion by destroying it. Film seems to develop an oppositional program to this tendency. Its raw material is apparently made up of concrete depictions. According to its qualitative edict, it has little appreciation for thought. It lacks the polished and universal quality of a so-called trade language. The majority of its products are oriented toward the direct imitation of reality.