The Either/Or of the Cinematic Image: Deleuze, Kierkegaard and the Promise of Cinema

This article examines Deleuze’s work on cinema as an indirect response to views on the ontology of art expressed in Kierkegaard’s Either/Or. The pseudonyms of ‘A’ and ‘B’ claim that traditional art forms cannot capture movement and time in a manner adequate for expressing the aesthetic and ethical life-views they respectively represent. Through analysis of Kierkegaard’s text as well as of key scenes from Casablanca (1942) and A Hidden Life (2019) , I argue that the movement-image and time-image provide a compelling answer to these limitations and fulfil their hidden promise of an art form capable of such expression.