Patrick Ffrench, author of Roland Barthes and Film: Myth, Eroticism and Poetics, discusses Barthes' ambivalence towards cinema and his engagement with films and directors like Fellini, Antonioni, Eisenstein, and Hitchcock. Focusing on Barthes' essays and book Camera Lucida, Ffrench examines Barthes' exploration of space, material aesthetics, and the pull of narrative in film. The podcast also explores Barthes' concepts of myth, eroticism, and the poetics of cinema, as well as his association of cinema with ideology and the importance of detachment and immersion.
