French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Fleischer, The Laboratories of Time: Writings on Cinema and Photography.
Art and Visual Culture
The Laboratories of Time: Writings on Cinema and Photography
Alain Fleischer
Published on: 09/10/2008
Publisher: Galaade
ISBN: 978-2-351-76052-9
EAN: 9782351760529
No. of pages: 426 pages
Publisher's price: 24.90€
Cinema is not an art of time, but an art of acceleration, of speed—a time disrupted and devastated by images that accelerate time, projected against time.
Editing is nothing but rhythm, at the mercy of the play of the moment. Is architecture not also scenography, set design, staging, or script? From cinema to painting, whether photographed or re-projected, from architecture to photography, Alain Fleischer, in The Laboratories of Time, constantly blends the arts, evoking his journey and encounters. He is a writer, but also a filmmaker, visual artist, and photographer.
As director of the National Studio of Contemporary Arts (Le Fresnoy), a project he designed and implemented, Alain Fleischer brings experience and analysis, the machinery of images and the machinery of words, into resonance in this collection—which is more literary than theoretical—in an act deliberately generating new meaning.
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As a polymath active across multiple visual and literary mediums, Alain Fleischer brings a rare practitioner's insight to the study of aesthetics. Rather than offering dry academic treatises, this collection bridges the gap between artistic creation and critical reflection. By examining how cinema accelerates time and how architecture functions as scenography, the text invites readers to reconsider the boundaries separating distinct artistic disciplines. This approach reflects a long tradition of artist-critics who illuminate their own creative processes through essays and reflections.
This volume will particularly interest students of contemporary visual culture, filmmakers, and readers curious about the intersections of art and technology. It addresses fundamental questions regarding how modern media constructs meaning, captures motion, and alters our perception of reality. Scholars of French arts and letters will find it a stimulating companion to contemporary debates on image-making. Without relying on rigid theoretical formulas, Fleischer offers an accessible yet deeply informed journey through the machinery of modern visual media.
An article on this book can be read on the nonfiction.fr website: