Film-Philosophy

elective courses

1-2 courses in philosophy

Ability to participate in discussions and write in English

Film-philosophy is a lively current area of inquiry within academic philosophy.

Film-philosophy is a lively current area of inquiry within academic philosophy. It finds its inspiration in the work of the American philosopher, Stanley Cavell (1926-2018), who in The World Viewed (1971) first argued that film, particularly in its early Hollywood era and genres makes important contributions to our philosophical self-understanding as modern subjects. Even more radically, Cavell claimed in that book that film as an art is in and of itself a form of philosophizing. Cavell’s idea has since been amplified to include such genres as Sci-Fi, the Western, Film Noir, and so on. In this course we will begin with the work of Stanley Cavell, and also read several examples of film-philosophy from some its most prominent practitioners (Stephen Mulhall, Robert Pippin, Richard Gilmore, etc.). While we will most be interested in watching the films and understanding their philosophical analyses, we will also consider the literature on abstract aesthetic questions, such as the very idea whether it really makes sense to say that film is or can be philosophy. Another key issue to consider is whether there is some difference in this respect between American and European cinema. Besides the normal reading load, students will be expected to watch several films every week on their own as well as to attend joint screenings followed by discussion.

The Medium of Film

Films The Rules of the Game (1939, dir. Jean Renoir)

Blowup (1966, dir.Michelangelo Antonioni)

Reading Roger Scruton: Photography and Representation

Stanley Cavell: The World Viewed (Preface, 1-41)

Perfectionism and Gender (Remarriage Comedies)

Films Philadelphia Story (1940, George Cukor)

Gaslight (1944, George Cukor)

American Hustle (2013, David O. Russell)

Reading Stanley Cavell: Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedies of Remarriage. Introduction and 4. The Importance of Importance (1-42; 135-160)

John Stuart Mill: The Subjection of Women

Tragic Agency (Film Noir)

Films Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)

Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955, Nicholas Ray)

Detour (1945, Edgar G. Ulmer)

Reading Robert B. Pippin: Fatalism in American Film Noir: Some Cinematic Philosophy. Introduction (1-25); 1. Trapped by Oneself in Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past (27-50); 4. “Why Didn’t You Shoot Again, Baby?”: Concluding Remarks (98-107)

Sidney Hook: The Hero in History. VIII. The Contingent and the Unforeseen (137-150)

Robert Warshow: The Gangster as Tragic Hero

Realism and Myth (The Western and MCU)

Films High Noon (1952, dir. Fred Zinnemann)

The Searchers (1956, dir. John Ford)

Shane (1953, dir. George Stevens)

Logan (2017, dir. James Mangold)

Reading Robert B. Pippin: What is a Western? Politics and Self-Knowledge in John Ford’s `The Searchers’

André Bazin: The Western, or the American Film par excellence; The Evolution of the Western

Richard A. Gilmore: John Ford’s The Searchers as an Allegory of Philosophical Search

Hitchcock and Horror

Films The Birds (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968, dir. Roman Polanski)

Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)

Reading Stephen Mulhall: On Film. Introduction; One: Kane’s Son, Cain’s Daughter: Ridley Scott’s `Alien’ (1-55)

Stanley Cavell: The World Viewed (60-108)

Play and the Definition of the Human

Films Blade Runner (1982, dir. Ridley Scott)

The 400 Blows (1959, dir. François Truffeaut)

The Wolfpack (dir. Crystal Moselle)

The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman)

Winter’s Tale (dir. Eric Rohmer)

Reading William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience

Michel de Montaigne: On the Education of Children

Pascal: Pensées (selections)

The Metaphysical Body and Film

Films Dolce Vita (1960, dir. Federico Fellini)

City Lights (1931, dir. Charlie Chaplin)

Of Body and Soul (2017, Ildikó Enyedi)

Reading TBA

Bazin, A. (1967). What is Cinema? Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, LTD.

Cavell, S. (2004). Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of Moral Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Cavell, S. (1996). Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Cavell, S. (1985). What Photography Calls Thinking. In W. Rothmann (Ed.), Cavell on Film (pp. 115–133). New York: SUNY Press.

Cavell, S. (1981). Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Cavell, S. (1979). The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film (Enlarged Edition). Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press.

Costello, D. (2008). On the Very Idea of a `Specific’ Medium: Michael Fried and Stanley Cavell on Painting and Photography as Arts. Critical Inquiry, 34(Winter), 274–312. Retrieved from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/people/faculty/costello/costello_ci_342_fried__cavell.pdf

Früchtl, J. (n.d.). Film as Philosophy. Retrieved from https://www-1degruyter-1com-1007ec9rv14f2.erf.sbb.spk-berlin.de/downloadpdf/books/9783110429831/9783110429831-004/9783110429831-004.pdf

Gaut, B. (2010). A Philosophy of Cinematic Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Gilmore, Richard A. (2005). Doing Philosophy at the Movies. New York: State University of New York Press

Jacobs, S. (2011). Framing Pictures: Film and the Visual Art. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Retrieved from http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748640171

Kovács, A. B. (2009). Andrei Tarkovsky. In P. Livingston & C. Plantinga (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film (pp. 581–590). London and New York: Routledge.

Mulhall, S. (2001). On Film. London and New York: Routledge.

Mullhall, S. (2007). Film as Philosophy: The Very Idea. Proceedings of the Aristotelean Society, New Series, 279–294.

Panofsky, E. (1997). Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures. In I. Lavin (Ed.), Three Essays on Style. CAmbridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Pippin, R. B. (2012). Fatalism in American Film Noir: Some Cinematic Philosophy. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press.

Rhu, Lawrence, F. (2006). Stanley Cavell’s American Dream: Shakespeare, Philosophy, and Hollywood Movies. New York: Fordham University Press.

Rothman, W. (2003). The “I” of the Camera: Essays in Film Criticism, History, and Aesthetics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rothman, W., & Keane, M. (2000). Reading Cavell’s The World Viewed: A Philosophical Perspective on Film. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Rothmann, W. (1998). Cavell and Film. In Encyclopedia of Aesthetics V.1. (pp. 352–357). Oxford University Press.

Rhu, Lawrence, F. (2006). Stanley Cavell’s American Dream: Shakespeare, Philosophy, and Hollywood Movies. New York: Fordham University Press.

Rothman, W. (2003). The “I” of the Camera: Essays in Film Criticism, History, and Aesthetics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Rothman, W., & Keane, M. (2000). Reading Cavell’s The World Viewed: A Philosophical Perspective on Film. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Rothmann, W. (1998). Cavell and Film. In Encyclopedia of Aesthetics V.1. (pp. 352–357). Oxford University Press.

Wartenberg, Thomas, E. (2008). Film as Philosophy. In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film (p. 549–560.). London and New York: Routledge.

Familiarity with basic problems and methods in the philosophy of film; familiarity with main genres and historical nomenclature; improved analytical and discussion skills, improved essay writing skills; recognizing Alfred Hitchcock based on brief cameo apperances

Presentations; participation; writing