Cinema Theory: Deleuze to Global Screens

War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception — Paul Virilio

Virilio's 1984 thesis — that cinema and warfare are twin technologies of perception — still reads like prophecy in the drone-strike era. This isn't film theory as you learned it in undergrad. Virilio, a French urbanist and cultural theorist, traces how military optics (reconnaissance photography, aerial surveillance, targeting systems) and cinema developed the same visual grammar. The "logistics of perception" means war doesn't just use cameras — it *is* a camera, training us to see in frames, cuts, and targeting reticles. Dense, unsettling, and utterly essential if you're interested in how screens train perception before they entertain. Explore our current copy of War and Cinema or browse more Philosophy books at Patina.

The Altering Eye: Contemporary International Cinema — Robert Kolker

Kolker's 1983 survey remains the definitive English-language study of 1950s–1980s auteur cinema, from Godard to Fassbinder to Glauber Rocha. This is a brick of a book — ambitious, rewarding, occasionally exhausting. Kolker maps the postwar explosion of international art cinema, focusing on directors who treated film as a philosophical and political medium: the French New Wave, New German Cinema, Italian neorealism's aftershocks, and Latin American revolutionary cinema. He's particularly strong on how these filmmakers deconstructed Hollywood's invisible editing and narrative closure. Not a casual read, but if you're serious about understanding why Godard matters or what Fassbinder was doing with melodrama, this is the text. Explore our current copy of The Altering Eye or browse more Philosophy books at Patina.

Modern European Film Makers and the Art of Adaptation

A scholarly deep-dive into how Truffaut, Fassbinder, and Schlöndorff translated literary works into cinema without betraying either medium. Adaptation studies often get bogged down in fidelity debates ("the book was better"), but this collection treats adaptation as an art form in its own right. The essays examine how European auteurs — Truffaut adapting Bradbury, Fassbinder adapting Fontane, Schlöndorff adapting Grass — used literature as raw material for cinematic argument. The focus is on *transformation*, not translation. Accessible enough for advanced undergrads, rigorous enough for postgrad seminars. Explore our current copy of Modern European Film Makers and the Art of Adaptation or browse more Philosophy books at Patina.

Global Television — MIT Press

MIT's anthology captures the moment television stopped being a national medium and became a global format-franchise machine. Published as broadcast TV began its slow retreat toward streaming, this collection examines transnational flows — format franchises (Big Brother, Idol), regional satellite networks, diaspora broadcasting, and the tension between local content and global capital. The essays are uneven (anthology problems) but the best ones — on Australian soaps going global, on Bollywood's TV expansion — are sharp and prescient. If you're interested in how Netflix ate the world, this is the pre-history. Explore our current copy of Global Television or browse more Philosophy books at Patina.

The Electronic Estate: New Communications Media and Australia — Penguin

A time capsule from Australia's early digital anxieties — how new media (pre-internet!) was reshaping national culture, politics, and identity. Published by Penguin during Australia's 1980s communications shake-up (satellite TV, cable experiments, early computing), this collection reads like archeology now. The contributors — mostly Australian academics and media critics — grapple with questions that sound quaint (will cable TV fragment national identity?) and questions that remain urgent (who controls the infrastructure?). As of August 2026, reading this alongside contemporary platform-monopoly debates is a trip — the technology changed, the power dynamics didn't. Explore our current copy of The Electronic Estate or browse more Philosophy books at Patina. This selection reflects Patina's ongoing interest in screen theory that treats media as a philosophical and political problem, not just an entertainment industry. These aren't beach reads — they're the books that rewired how a generation of critics, filmmakers, and theorists understood what screens do to us. Shop all Philosophy books at Patina Paperbacks →

Where can I buy secondhand film theory and media studies books in Australia?

Patina Paperbacks stocks rotating preloved copies of dense, rewarding film and media theory — Virilio, Kolker, Deleuze-adjacent studies, and Australian media history. We ship Australia-wide from Sydney, free over $29. The philosophy collection is where we shelve screen theory that treats cinema and television as philosophical objects, not just entertainment.

Is Paul Virilio's War and Cinema still relevant in the drone-warfare era?

Honestly, yes — Virilio's 1984 argument that cinema and military optics co-evolved reads like prophecy now. His claim that warfare trains perception through screen-based targeting systems (reconnaissance cameras, aerial surveillance) predates drones by decades, but it maps perfectly onto how we consume war footage today. Dense read, but the thesis holds.

What's the difference between Deleuze's cinema books and standard film theory?

Deleuze (Cinema 1 and Cinema 2, published 1983 and 1985) treats film as a philosophical problem — movement-images and time-images — not a narrative or genre exercise. He's not interested in plot or auteur biography; he's reading Hitchcock, Ozu, and neorealism as different regimes of perception. It's philosophy *through* cinema, not film criticism. The books in this round-up orbit that tradition without requiring you to have read Bergson first.

Are these books suitable for undergrad film studies students?

The Altering Eye and the adaptation anthology are accessible to advanced undergrads who've already done intro courses. Virilio and the MIT anthology are postgrad-level or for committed autodidacts — they assume you're already fluent in film history and theory. The Electronic Estate is the outlier: readable but historically niche, best for Australian media history nerds or anyone interested in how pre-internet anxieties map onto platform-era debates.

Does Patina stock Gilles Deleuze's Cinema 1 and Cinema 2?

Not in this current batch, but Deleuze's cinema books cycle through our philosophy collection regularly. The titles featured here — especially Virilio and Kolker — reflect the same intellectual moment (1980s screen theory treating cinema as a perceptual and political technology) without requiring you to wrestle with Deleuze's Bergson-heavy prose first. Worth checking back if you're specifically hunting the Deleuze volumes.