Designed for classroom use, this authoritative anthology presents key selections from the best contemporary work in philosophy of film.
The featured essays have been specially chosen for their clarity, philosophical depth, and consonance with the current move towards cognitive film theory
Eight sections with introductions cover topics such as the nature of film, film as art, documentary cinema, narration and emotion in film, film criticism, and film's relation to knowledge and morality
Issues addressed include the objectivity of documentary films, fear of movie monsters, and moral questions surrounding the viewing of pornography
Replete with examples and discussion of moving pictures throughout
Acknowledgments viii
General Introduction 1
Part I Film as Art 5
Introduction 7
1 Photography and Representation 19
Roger Scruton
2 The Aesthetics of Photographic Transparency 35
Dominic McIver Lopes
3 Everybody Gets a Cut: DVDs Give Viewers Dozens of Choices -- and that's the Problem 44
Terrence Rafferty
Part II What Is Film? 49
Introduction 51
4 The World Viewed 67
Stanley Cavell
5 A Note on the Film 79
Susanne K. Langer
6 Vision and Dream in the Cinema 82
F. E. Sparshott
7 The Long Goodbye: The Imaginary Language of Film 91
Gregory Currie
8 Moving Pictures 100
Arthur C. Danto
9 Defining the Moving Image 113
Noël Carroll
Part III Documentary 135
Introduction 137
10 Visible Traces: Documentary and the Contents of Photographs 141
Gregory Currie
11 Fiction, Non-Fiction, and the Film of Presumptive Assertion: A Conceptual Analysis 154
Noël Carroll
Part IV Film Narrative/Narration 173
Introduction 175
12 Le Grand Imagier Steps Out: The Primitive Basis of Film Narration 185
George M. Wilson
13 Unreliability Refigured: Narrative in Literature and Film 200
Gregory Currie
Part V Film and Emotion 211
Introduction 213
14 Film, Emotion, and Genre 217
Noël Carroll
15 Fearing Fictions 234
Kendall Walton
16 Empathy and (Film) Fiction 247
Alex Neill
17 Identification and Emotion in Narrative Film 260
Berys Gaut
18 In Fictional Shoes: Mental Simulation and Fiction 271
Deborah Knight
Part VI Topics in Film Criticism 281
Introduction 283
19 Morals for Method 287
George M. Wilson
20 Cinematic Authorship 299
Paisley Livingston
21 National Cinema, the Very Idea 310
Jinhee Choi
Part VII Film and Ethics 321
Introduction 323
22 Film Criticism and Virtue Theory 335
Joseph H. Kupfer
23 Beauty and Evil: The Case of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will 347
Mary Devereaux
24 A First Look at the Pornography/Civil Rights Ordinance: Could Pornography Be the Subordination of Women? 362
Melinda Vadas
Part VIII Film and Knowledge 379
Introduction 381
25 The Philosophical Limits of Film 387
Bruce Russell
26 Minerva in the Movies: Relations Between Philosophy and Film 391
Karen Hanson
27 Motion Pictures as a Philosophical Resource 397
Lester H. Hunt
Select Bibliography by Jinhee Choi 407
Index 415
