way, Wall-Romana offers readings of several of Epstein’s films and texts, usefully identifying a set of primary interests across his oeuvre to draw upon for understanding individual works. He includes convincing arguments about the interest inhering in films that have all but been ignored outside of these pages. Perhaps most originally, Wall- Romana considers aspects of the work from a queer perspective, offering an account of Epstein’s unpublished manu- script on male homosexuality as well as readings of several of his films whose dynamics are inflected by psychosexual undercurrents. Further, Wall-Romana traces Epstein’s thought in relation to working-class concerns and spends a chapter discussing his work in Brittany, which is often seen as a movement toward a more documentary ethos in his films. He puts these tendencies into the larger contexts of Epstein’s life and interests, illuminating the hybrid dynamics of his documentary and narrative, silent and sound, experimental and commercial film ventures. Criticism of Epstein’s film work has languished over the last decades because only a select few of his films have been available outside of the archives. A few recent, comprehensive retrospectives—in French venues such as the Cine ´mathe `que Que ´be ´coise in Montre ´al and the Cine ´- mathe `que Franc  aise in Paris, as well as in the US at Anthology Film Archives in New York City—have revived interest in the films, and the release this past spring of a box set of Epstein’s films on DVD issued in connection with the Cine ´- mathe `que Franc  aise makes it possible at last to gain access to this stunning cache of films. As Wall-Romana’s arguments make plain, the films are frequently a practical outlet for Epstein’s philosophy of film, and several are remarkable not only for the way they engage his ideas about cinema but for how they engage the world. One of the most useful aspects of Wall-Romana’s work here is in broad- ening our understanding of that engagement. Jean Epstein: Corporeal Cinema and Film Philosophy is at once a definitive entry in the field of study of Epstein himself and an exegesis on French film theory, criticism, and philosophy from the beginning to the present; it also offers an excellent alternative entry in studies of cinema spectatorship. For their deft and often delightful engagement with such important and timely issues, for their elegant prose and lively engagement with a broad intellectual and creative history, both Wall-Romana’s and Epstein’s work deserve a closer look. SARAH KELLER Colby College q 2014 Sarah Keller http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2014.945996 Benjamin, Barthes and the Singularity of Photography KATHRIN YACAVONE London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013 272 pp., £19.99, ISBN: 978 1-62-356669-2 This is a landmark book, the first devoted solely to comparative analysis of the work of Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes on photography. Through meticulous research, Yacavone underlines the importance of the encounter between individual viewer and photograph. She Modern & Contemporary France 133