Philosophy of film  

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-:''[[David Bordwell vs Slavoj Žižek]]''+The '''philosophy of film''' is a branch of [[aesthetics]] within the discipline of [[philosophy]] that seeks to understand the most basic questions regarding [[film]].
-'''Film theory''' debates the essence of the [[film|cinema]] and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to [[reality]], the other [[art]]s, individual viewers, and [[society]] at large. Film theory is generally distinguished from [[film criticism]], which concentrates on evaluating individual films. +
-==History==+== History ==
-In some respects, French philosopher [[Henri Bergson]]'s ''[[Matter and Memory]]'' anticipated the development of film theory at a time that the cinema was just being born as a new medium—the early 1900s. He commented on the need for new ways of thinking about movement, and coined the terms "the movement-image" and "the time-image". However, in his 1906 essay ''L'illusion cinématographique'' (in ''L'évolution créatrice''), he rejects film as an exemplification of what he had in mind. Nonetheless, decades later, in ''[[Cinema 1|Cinéma I]] and Cinema II'' (1983-1985), the philosopher [[Gilles Deleuze]] took ''Matter and Memory'' as the basis of his philosophy of film and revisited Bergson's concepts, combining them with the [[semiotics]] of [[Charles Sanders Peirce]].+The earliest person to explore philosophical questions regarding film was [[Hugo Münsterberg]]. During the [[silent film]] era, he sought to understand what it was about film that made it conceptually distinct from theater. He concluded that the use of close-ups, flash-backs, and edits were unique to film and constituted its nature.
-Early film theory arose in the [[silent era]] and was mostly concerned with defining the crucial elements of the medium. It largely evolved from the works of directors like [[Germaine Dulac]], [[Louis Delluc]], [[Jean Epstein]], [[Sergei Eisenstein]], [[Lev Kuleshov]], and [[Dziga Vertov]] and film theorists like [[Rudolf Arnheim]], [[Béla Balázs]] and [[Siegfried Kracauer]].<ref>[[Robert Stam]], ''Film Theory: an introduction", Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.</ref> These individuals emphasized how film differed from reality and how it might be considered a valid art form.+[[Rudolf Arnheim]], with the beginning of the era of sound for film, argued that the silent film era was aesthetically superior to the "talkies". He held that by adding sound to previously silent moving images, the unique status of film had been removed. Instead of being a unique art form that could carefully study bodies in motion, film had become merely a combination of two other art forms.
-In the years after [[World War II]], the French film critic and theorist [[André Bazin]] reacted against this approach to the cinema, arguing that film's essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality, not in its difference from reality.+[[André Bazin]], contrary to Arnheim, held that whether or not a film has sound is largely irrelevant. He believed that film, due mainly to its foundation in and relationship with photography, had a realist aspect to it. He argued that film has the ability to capture the real world. The film ''[[Waking Life]]'' also features a discussion of the philosophy of film where the theories of Bazin are emphasized. In it, the character waxes philosophic that every moment of film is capturing an aspect of [[God]].
-In the 1960s and 1970s, film theory took up residence in academe, importing concepts from established disciplines like [[psychoanalysis]], [[gender studies]], [[anthropology]], [[literary theory]], [[semiotics]] and [[linguistics]].+[[American philosopher]] [[Noël Carroll]] has argued that the earlier characterizations of film made by philosophers too narrowly defined the nature of film and that the incorrectly conflated aspects of genres of films with film in general.
-During the 1990s the digital revolution in image technologies has had an impact on film theory in various ways. There has been a refocus onto celluloid film's ability to capture an indexical image of a moment in time by theorists like [[Mary Ann Doane]], Philip Rosen and [[Laura Mulvey]] who was informed by [[psychoanalysis]]. From a psychoanalytical perspective, after the [[Lacan]]ian notion of the Real, [[Slavoj Žižek]] offered new aspects of the [[gaze]] extensively used in contemporary film analysis. There has also been a historical revisiting of early cinema screenings, practices and spectatorship modes by writers [[Tom Gunning (writer)|Tom Gunning]], Miriam Hansen and Yuri Tsivian.+Aspects of Bazin's realist theories have been accepted by philosophers in spite of Carroll's critique. The ''transparency thesis'', which says that film is a medium transparent to true reality, has been accepted by [[Kendall Walton]].
- +
-==Specific theories of film==+
-*[[Apparatus theory]]+
-*[[Auteur theory]]+
-*[[Feminist film theory]]+
-*[[Formalist film theory]]+
-*[[Marxist film theory]]+
-*[[Philosophy of language film analysis]]+
-*[[Psychoanalytical film theory]]+
-*[[Screen theory]]+
-*[[Structuralist film theory]]+
- +
-==See also==+
-*[[Philosophy of film]]+
-*[[Film journals and magazines]]+
-*[[Film]]+
-*[[Fictional film]]+
-*[[List of film-related topics|List of motion picture-related topics]]+
- +
- +
-==Further reading==+
-*[[Dudley Andrew]], ''Concepts in Film Theory'', Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.+
-*[[Francesco Casetti]], ''Theories of Cinema, 1945-1990'', Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.+
-* [[Stanley Cavell]], [http://books.google.com/books?id=Ro23ozNGdzQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stanley+cavell&ei=NsO5SNm_EIbMywSB3aiuAw&sig=ACfU3U2CBJE_tKHfu5Oa5bUbmh93DafQXQ#PPP1,M11 ''The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film''] (1971); 2nd enlarged edn. (1979)+
-*[[Bill Nichols]], ''Representing Reality. Issues and Concepts in Documentary'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.+
-*''The Oxford Guide to Film Studies'', [[Oxford University Press]], 1998.+
- +
-== List of film theorists ==+
- +
-* [[Rudolf Arnheim]]+
-* [[Béla Balázs]]+
-* [[André Bazin]]+
-* [[Walter Benjamin]]+
-* [[David Bordwell]]+
-* [[Riciotto Canudo]]+
-* [[Gilles Deleuze]]+
-* [[Louis Delluc]]+
-* [[Sergei Eisenstein]]+
-* [[Alexander Kluge]]+
-* [[Siegfried Kracauer]]+
-* [[Teresa de Lauretis]]+
-* [[Christian Metz]]+
-* [[Laura Mulvey]]+
-* [[Hugo Münsterberg]]+
-* [[Vivian Sobchack]]+
-* [[Slavoj Žižek]]+
-* [[Georg Lukacs]]+
-* [[Vsevolod Pudovkin]]+
- +
-==Specific theories of film==+
-*[[Apparatus theory]]+
-*[[Auteur theory]]+
-*[[Feminist film theory]]+
-*[[Formalist film theory]]+
-*[[Marxist film theory]]+
-*[[Psychoanalytical film theory]]+
-*[[Socialist realism]]+
-*[[Screen theory]]+
-*[[Structuralist film theory]]+
- +
-== See also ==+
-*[[Auteur theory]]+
-*[[Surrealism and film]]+
-*[[David Bordwell vs Slavoj Žižek]]+
-*[[Oneiric (film theory)]]+
-*[[Feminist film theory]]+
-*[[Psychoanalytical film theory]]+
-*[[Film as a Subversive Art]]+
-*[[Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema]]+
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The philosophy of film is a branch of aesthetics within the discipline of philosophy that seeks to understand the most basic questions regarding film.

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History

The earliest person to explore philosophical questions regarding film was Hugo Münsterberg. During the silent film era, he sought to understand what it was about film that made it conceptually distinct from theater. He concluded that the use of close-ups, flash-backs, and edits were unique to film and constituted its nature.

Rudolf Arnheim, with the beginning of the era of sound for film, argued that the silent film era was aesthetically superior to the "talkies". He held that by adding sound to previously silent moving images, the unique status of film had been removed. Instead of being a unique art form that could carefully study bodies in motion, film had become merely a combination of two other art forms.

André Bazin, contrary to Arnheim, held that whether or not a film has sound is largely irrelevant. He believed that film, due mainly to its foundation in and relationship with photography, had a realist aspect to it. He argued that film has the ability to capture the real world. The film Waking Life also features a discussion of the philosophy of film where the theories of Bazin are emphasized. In it, the character waxes philosophic that every moment of film is capturing an aspect of God.

American philosopher Noël Carroll has argued that the earlier characterizations of film made by philosophers too narrowly defined the nature of film and that the incorrectly conflated aspects of genres of films with film in general.

Aspects of Bazin's realist theories have been accepted by philosophers in spite of Carroll's critique. The transparency thesis, which says that film is a medium transparent to true reality, has been accepted by Kendall Walton.

Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Philosophy of film" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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