Noël Carroll: The Philosophy of Motion Pictures (2008)

The philosophy of motion pictures has typically been explored in a top-down fashion. The essence of motion pictures is identified – usually understood in terms of photographic film – and every other feature of the film is weighed in relation to that essence.

Philosophy of Motion Pictures offers a new approach, championing the concept of the moving image in a more freestyle manner. Motion pictures are defined in a way that not only embraces the media in which moving images exist, but which also affirms the variety of purposes they may legitimately serve. Characterizations of key cinematic elements — the shot, the sequence, the erotetic narrative, and its modes of affective address — are not deduced from first principles, but rather from topic to topic in a piecemeal fashion. The result is a more pluralistic review of this emerging field of study than is found in more conventional texts on film theory.

Topics include film as art, medium specificity, defining the moving image, representation, editing, narrative, emotion and evaluation. These topics reflect the legacy of traditional film theory for the contemporary philosophy of the moving image, while suggesting a new direction for theorizing the motion picture.

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, 2008
ISBN: 140512024X, 9781405120258
256 pages

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PDF (updated on 2012-7-15)

Felicity Colman (ed.): Film, Theory, and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers (2009)

Thoroughly intertwined, film and philosophy have a complex relationship between thought and perception, time and memory, as well as social, political, and aesthetic experiences. Philosophy has underpinned the creation of cinema while cinema, in turn, has redefined philosophical categories, rethought sex, gender, time and space, and created new concepts that illuminate phenomenology, metaphysics, and epistemology.

An ideal introduction for students, Film, Theory and Philosophy brings together leading scholars to provide a clear, detailed overview of the key thinkers who have shaped the field of film philosophy. From continental philosophers to analytical philosophers, film-makers, film reviewers, sociologists, and cultural theorists, the essays reveal how philosophy can be applied to film analysis and how film can be used to illustrate philosophical problems. But most importantly, the essays explore how cinema has shaped contemporary philosophy and how philosophy has led to a reappraisal of film. This collection will prove an invaluable reference and guide to readers interested in a deeper understanding of the issues and insights presented by the philosophy of film.

Publisher McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009
ISBN 0773537007, 9780773537002
404 pages

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-7-14)

Steven Shaviro: Post-Cinematic Affect: On Grace Jones, Boarding Gate and Southland Tales (2010)

Steven Shaviro: “The new issue (14.1) of the open-access journal Film-Philosophy is now online.

Featured in this issue as an ‘extended article’ (it comes out to 100 pages!) is my latest: Post-Cinematic Affect: On Grace Jones, Boarding Gate and Southland Tales.

The article is freely available for download; it comprises about two thirds of my forthcoming book Post-Cinematic Affect, appearing sometime later this year from Zero Books. (The book version will include two additional chapters: one on Neveldine/Taylor’s Gamer, and a general conclusion).” (from author’s blog)

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