Abstract

Using Jean-Luc Nancy's productive concept of resonant listening, this article interrogates silence in the films of Michael Haneke.  Arguing for a kind of open, resonating and sonorous form of philosophic listening, Nancy articulates the distinctions among listening, hearing and understanding.  Working from these concepts, this article considers the particular form of resonance in the instance of cinematic silence and in particular the use of silence in the philosophically engaged cinema of Haneke