New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images

Description

This is a critical exploration of analytic and Continental philosophies of film, which puts film-philosophy into practice with detailed discussions of three filmmakers. The book includes philosophical readings of three key contemporary filmmakers: Malick, Lynch and Von Trier. It also features links to online resources, guides to further reading and a filmography.

Robert Sinnerbrink is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Macquarie University, Australia. He is the author of Understanding Hegelianism (Acumen, 2007), co-editor of Critique Today (Brill, 2006), and has published articles on Lynch, Malick, and von Trier in journals including Film-Philosophy, Projections: The Journal of Movies and Mind, and Screening the Past.

Both an excellent introduction and an original contribution to the field, New Philosophies of Film: Thinking Images covers a large range of theoretical positions with impressive adroitness. By offering incisive philosophical analyses alongside brilliant film readings, Sinnerbrink achieves that rare thing, a true marriage of the abstract and the concrete that will be of huge value to scholars and students alike. Professor John Mullarkey, Kingston University, London, UK -- Professor John Mullarkey Robert Sinnerbrink's New Philosophies of Film is a captivating, challenging, smart, and highly readable exploration of the aesthetic encounter between cinema and philosophy. As an introduction to the recent philosophical turn in film studies, the book offers a rich and insightful critical perspective on many influential developments in film theory such as cognitivism. As a contribution to the emerging field of philosophical engagement with film New Philosophies of Film shows that films can do more than just illustrate or serve as metaphors for philosophical ideas. Films are philosophically valuable in themselves insofar as they can engage in philosophizing as 'thinking agents'. Furthermore, films can invite us to invest in them philosophically, to meet them in dialogue as philosophical discussion partners. This idea comes alive in Sinnerbrink's exceptionally vivid examples, in which he analyzes the philosophical-aesthetic receptivity to the work of such filmmakers such as David Lynch, Lars von Trier and Terrence Malick. This book is a 'must read' not only for philosophers and film scholars, but also for anyone seriously enthusiastic about cinema. Tarja Laine, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. New Philosophies of Film is an ambitious attempt to overcome the Analytic-Continental divide in theorizing about film and to develop a new understanding of the relationship between film and philosophy. Beginning with a critical overview of recent developments in the philosophy of film and ending with interpretations that present film as a new mode of thinking, this book breaks new ground and will have to be reckoned with by anyone interested in film and philosophy. Thomas E Wartenberg, Professor of Philosophy, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA. On the one hand, [the book] is a helpful primer of the recent history of philosophy's new relationship to cinema...On the other hand, it is already at this point that we can appreciate the book's second valence, namely, its defense of the autonomy of the moving image, that is, that complex constructions of images (films) have an irreducibly aesthetic value that is independent of the dominion of the concept. -- Jason M. Wirth, Seattle University * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * The process this book presents is not about analyzing the content or meaning of the images, or even of the stories themselves. Sinnerbrink's idea is actually to take a deeper look at our engagement with films as both works of art and as experiences to reflect upon. Philosophy ought to be a social activity, not a private academic pursuit. If this is the case, then exposing groups of people to common images and narratives which aim to promote skeptical thoughts, aesthetic experiences or critical curiosity can only be a positive contribution to the way we practice philosophy. -- Adam Melinn, Philadelphia University * Philosophy in Review * Sinnerbrink's book will add a dose of welcome scepticism to anyone embarking on the consideration of some recent developments in anglophone film studies... Sinnerbrink injects life into his consideration of the cognitivists by means of adroit illustration from examples of his own choosing which display a cinephile's reservoir of resources - not always something that can be said of commentators content to use the same filmic examples as do their sources. This aspect is one of the many pleasures of Sinnerbrink's addition to the growing body of work in this field. -- Garin Dowd * Radical Philosophy *