Filmed Thought: Cinema as Reflective FormWith the rise of review sites and social media, films today, as soon as they are shown, immediately become the topic of debates on their merits not only as entertainment, but also as serious forms of artistic expression. Philosopher Robert B. Pippin, however, wants us to consider a more radical proposition: film as thought, as a reflective form. Pippin explores this idea through a series of perceptive analyses of cinematic masterpieces, revealing how films can illuminate, in a concrete manner, core features and problems of shared human life. Filmed Thought examines questions of morality in Almodóvar’s Talk to Her, goodness and naïveté in Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, love and fantasy in Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows, politics and society in Polanski’s Chinatown and Malick’s The Thin Red Line, and self-understanding and understanding others in Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place and in the Dardennes brothers' oeuvre. In each reading, Pippin pays close attention to what makes these films exceptional as technical works of art (paying special attention to the role of cinematic irony) and as intellectual and philosophical achievements. Throughout, he shows how films offer a view of basic problems of human agency from the inside and allow viewers to think with and through them. Captivating and insightful, Filmed Thought shows us what it means to take cinema seriously not just as art, but as thought, and how this medium provides a singular form of reflection on what it is to be human. |
Contents
Section II Moral Variations | 47 |
Section III Social Pathologies | 99 |
Section IV Irony Mutuality | 145 |
Section V Agency Meaning | 201 |
Acknowledgments | 257 |
259 | |
265 | |
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aesthetic Alicia Almodóvar beginning Benigno camera Cary Cary’s Cavell Cavell’s characters Charles Charles’s Charlie’s Chinatown cinematic clearly conventions Dardenne Dardenne brothers discussion Dix’s dramatic Emma especially Evelyn fantasy Figure film film noir film’s Francis genre gun crazy Heaven Allows Hegel Hitchcock Hollywood human incest ironic irony issue Jake Jake’s Jeff Jeff’s Johnny Guitar kill kind Laurel least Lisa live look Lorna’s Luc Dardenne Malick Marco marriage means melodrama Merry Widow Miss Lonelyhearts moral movie murder narration narrative Nicholas Ray Noah Cross noir noted obvious Olivier Olivier’s one’s perhaps philosophical Pippin play plot point of view police possible psychological question Ray’s realize reflection relation role romantic romantic love Ron’s Rosetta scene seems sense sexual simply Sirk Sirk’s skepticism social someone sort Staros suggest tells theme Thin Red Line thing Thorwald tion trying understand Vienna viewer visual voice-overs Western Witt woman