Arrows of Desire

Peter Wollen (1938-2019) was a cultural critic, film theorist, curator and avant-garde filmmaker. His books include Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, Raiding the Icebox, Readings and Writings, and Singin' in the Rain. He co-wrote the screenplay for Antonioni's The Passenger, and subsequently made six films in collaboration with Laura Mulvey, including Riddles of the Sphinx. His final film was a solo project, Friendship's Death, starring Tilda Swinton.

• The place from which we fire our arrows. - Kodwo EshunPart 1. Counter-cinema and BeyondIntroduction to Two Mayakovsky ScenariosJean-Luc Godard: Le Gai SavoirJean-Luc Godard: British SoundsJean-Luc Godard: Wind from the EastJean-Luc Godard: Counter-cinemaLandscape, Meteorology and Chris WelsbyThe Avant-Gardes: Europe and America- Reply to Sitney- Passion 1- L'Eternel Retour- Arrows of Desire- Interview on 'Arrows of Desire', ICA Biennial of Film and Video- Diagram on the History of Experimental Film- Perhaps.- Knight's MovesPart 2. Anti-ImperialismsHe That Shall ComeThe Revolution in ZanzibarAdenThe Crisis in SterlingIran Today - and Tomorrow?Guilt by AssociationDossier of the Indonesian DramaWas Christ a Collaborator?ContradictionFriendship's Death diagramsTwo Weeks on Another PlanetIntroduction to Wedding in GalileeIraqJohn WesleyPart 3. The Continent: Renarrating 'American' ArtFrida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (with Laura Mulvey)Eisenstein in MexicoIntroduction to J.G. Posada, Messenger of MortalityThe Continent - Letter to David RossThe Continent - Sketch for an ExhibitionThe Continent - Notes to a Sketch for an ExhibitionMasculinity: Siqueiros and PollockGlobal Conceptualism: North America - Exhibition NotesA Trialogue on Arrows of Desire - Kodwo Eshun, Oliver Fuke and Nicolas Helm-Grovas

This thrilling book does more than confirm Peter Wollen's place as perhaps the most incisive thinker to triangulate cinema, art and politics in the post-1968 period: by collecting lesser-known texts and astutely contextualising them, it reveals Wollen's daring interdisciplinary expansiveness. With a critical and passionate gaze, Wollen meets his changing times in essays full of historical consciousness and conviction, launching arrows that sail into the darkness of our present with a shock of illumination. If this first book is anything to go by, the next two volumes of these previously uncollected writings can't come soon enough