Towards A Philosophy Of Cinematography

This book presents three interrelated essays about cinematography which offer a theoretical understanding of the ways that film practitioners orchestrate light in today’s post-digital context. Cinematography is a practice at the heart of film production which traditionally involves the control of light and camera technologies to creatively capture moving imagery. During recent years, the widespread adoption of digital processes in cinematography has received a good deal of critical attention from practitioners and scholars alike, however little specific consideration about evolving lighting practices can be found amongst this discourse. Drawing on new-materialist ideas, actor-network theory and the concept of co-creativity, these essays examine the impact of changing production processes for the role and responsibilities of a cinematographer with a specific focus on lighting. Each essay advances a new perspective on the discipline, moving from the notion of light as vision to light as material, from technology as a tool to technology as a network, and from cinematography as an industry to cinematography as a collaborative art.

This volume collects twenty original essays on the philosophy of film. It uniquely brings together scholars working across a range of philosophical traditions and academic disciplines to broaden and advance debates on film and philosophy. The book includes contributions from a number of prominent philosophers of film including Noël Carroll, Chris Falzon, Deborah Knight, Paisley Livingston, Robert Sinnerbrink, Malcolm Turvey, and Thomas Wartenberg. While the topics explored by the contributors are diverse, there are a number of thematic threads that connect them. Overall, the book seeks to bridge analytic and continental approaches to philosophy of film in fruitful ways. Moving to the individual essays, the first two sections offer novel takes on the philosophical value and the nature of film. The next section focuses on the film-as-philosophy debate. Section IV covers cinematic experience, while Section V includes interpretations of individual films that touch on questions of artificial intelligence, race and film, and cinema’s biopolitical potential. Finally, the last section proposes new avenues for future research on the moving image beyond film. This book will appeal to a broad range of scholars working in film studies, theory, and philosophy.

This collection displays a range of approaches and contemporary developments in the expanding field of film-philosophy. The essays explore central issues surrounding the conjunction of film and philosophy, presenting a varied yet coherent reflection on the nature of this conjunction.

Film and philosophy have much in common, and books have been written on film and philosophy. But can films be, or do, philosophy? Can they “think”? Film as Philosophy is the first book to explore this fascinating question historically, thematically, and methodically. Bringing together leading scholars from universities across the globe, Film as Philosophy presents major new research that leads film studies and philosophy into a productive dialogue. It provides a uniquely sweeping, historical overview of the confluence of film and philosophy for more than a century, considering films from Jean Renoir, Lars von Trier, Jørgen Leth, David Lynch, Michael Haneke, and others; the written works of filmmakers who also theorized on the medium, including Sergei Eisenstein and Jean Epstein; and others who have written on cinema, including Hugo Münsterberg, Béla Balázs, André Bazin, Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Stanley Cavell, Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière, and many more. Representing a major step toward establishing a media philosophy that puts the status, role, and function of film into a new perspective, Film as Philosophy removes representational techniques from the center of inquiry, replacing these with the medium’s ability to “think.” Hence it accords film with “agency,” and the dialogue between it and philosophy (and even neuroscience) is negotiated anew. Contributors: Nicole Brenez, U of Paris 3–Sorbonne; Elisabeth Bronfen, U of Zurich; Noël Carroll, CUNY; Tom Conley, Harvard U; Angela Dalle Vacche, Georgia Institute of Technology; Gregory Flaxman, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Alex Ling, Western Sydney U; Adrian Martin, Monash U; John Ó Maoilearca, Kingston U, London; Robert Sinnerbrink, Macquarie U, Sydney; Murray Smith, U of Kent, Canterbury; Julia Vassilieva, Monash U, Melbourne; Christophe Wall-Romana, U of Minnesota; and Thomas E. Wartenberg, Mount Holyoke College.

Philosophy and Film moves from broad theoretical reflections on film as a medium to concrete examinations of individual films.

Designed for classroom use, this authoritative anthology presentskey selections from the best contemporary work in philosophy offilm. The featured essays have been specially chosen for theirclarity, philosophical depth, and consonance with the current movetowards cognitive film theory Eight sections with introductions cover topics such as thenature of film, film as art, documentary cinema, narration andemotion in film, film criticism, and film's relation to knowledgeand morality Issues addressed include the objectivity of documentary films,fear of movie monsters, and moral questions surrounding the viewingof pornography Replete with examples and discussion of moving picturesthroughout

This book examines the theory, originally raised in Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of film, that cinema has the power to restore our trust in the world. Früchtl demonstrates that cinema does this in three main ways: by restoring our belief in the absurd, in the body and in a sceptical abstention from judging and acting. Cinema shares this ability with other arts, but what sets it apart in particular is that it evokes Modernity and its principle of subjectivity. This book further develops the idea of trust and cinema by synthesizing the philosophies of complementary thinkers such as Kant, Nancy, Agamben, Benjamin and Rancière. It concludes with examination of Cavell's solution to the problem of scepticism and a synthesis of Kantian aesthetic theory with Cavellian pragmatism. Originally published in German under the title Vertrauen in die Welt, this English-language translation features a new introduction that situates Früchtl's work within contemporary analytical philosophy of film. It will be of interest to scholars working in Continental aesthetics, philosophy of film, and film theory.

Whether addressing assumptions about the objectivity of documentary film, fear of movie monsters, or moral questions surrounding the viewing of pornography, this text is replete with examples and discussion of moving pictures throughout. Book jacket.