Film As Philosophy

Film as Philosophy Also by Rupert Read THE NEW WITTGENSTEIN (editor) THE NEW HUME DEBATE (editor) THOMAS KUHN: The Philosopher of Scientific Revolution RECENT WORK IN PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE Film as Philosophy Essays in Cinema After Wittgenstein and Cavell Edited by Rupert Read and Jerry Goodenough University of East Anglia Editorial matter, selection, introduction © Rupert Read and Jerry Goodenough © 2005; all remaining chapters © respective authors 2005 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-9795-1 ISBN 978-0-230-52426-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230524262 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Film as philosophy : essays on cinema after Wittgenstein and Cavell / edited by Jerry Goodenough & Rupert Read. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Motion pictures–Philosophy. I. Goodenough, Jerry. II. Read, Rupert J., 1966– PN1995.F45755 2005 2005047530 791.43′01–dc22 Contents Preface vi Notes on Contributors vii Introduction I: A Philosopher Goes to the Cinema 1 (Jerry Goodenough) Introduction II: What Theory of Film Do Wittgenstein 29 and Cavell Have? (Rupert Read) Part I: Essays Cogito Ergo Film: Plato, Descartes and Fight Club 39 (Nancy Bauer) In Space, No-one Can Hear You Scream: Acknowledging the Human Voice in the Alien Universe (Stephen Mulhall) 57 Memento: A Philosophical Investigation (Phil Hutchinson 72 and Rupert Read) The Everydayness of Don Giovanni (Simon Glendinning) 94 Silent Dialogue: Philosophising with Jan Sˇvankmajer 114 (David Rudrum) Calm: On Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line 133 (Simon Critchley) Habitual Remarriage: The Ends of Happiness in The Palm 149 Beach Story (Stuart Klawans) Part II: Interview ‘What Becomes of Thinking on Film?’ (Stanley Cavell in 167 conversation with Andrew Klevan) Bibliography 210 Index 215 v Preface The origins of this book lie in the joint interests of its editors in both philosophy and the cinema. Some years ago we came together to teach an undergraduate unit entitled ‘Film and Literature as Philosophy’, an experience that over time has clarified our belief that going to the cinema could do more than just provide nice illustrative examples for brightening up philosophy seminars, that film and watching film could actually be philosophy. We have been delighted to find that we are not the only ones who feel this way, and this book contains some fine examples of thoughts on and around this theme from some of the most interesting contemporary philosophers. The book is crowned by a substantial new interview with Stanley Cavell, whose eminent work in the (post-?)analytical philosophy involved in Wittgenstein studies and in ‘film analysis’ has increas- ingly come together: here he gives an enlightening and detailed – dialogical – description of what philosophical reasons there are for watching films. We are grateful to him for this interview and to Andrew Klevan for all his work on that project. We would also like to express our thanks to all of those students of ours who have forced us to sharpen up our ideas about film as philosophy over the years, to the many participants in our Philosophers at the Cinema film series, and to our fellow teacher, film theorist and philosopher, Emma Bell. Thanks also to Nick Bunnin and Michael Grant for early help in imagining this book. Rupert would also like to thank Juliette Harkin, for helping him to watch the films about ‘madness’ which lie close to the core of this collection, whether they are explic- itly discussed in it or not. Finally, we are most grateful to Luciana and Daniel, our editors at Palgrave Macmillan, for all the sterling work they have put in to help make this project a reality. vi Notes on Contributors Nancy Bauer is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, in Boston, where she teaches courses in feminism, modern European philosophy, and philosophy and film. She is the author of Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism (2001) and is currently writing a book called How to Do Things With Pornography. Simon Critchley is Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, New York and at the University of Essex. He is author and editor of numerous books, most recently On Humour (2002) Very Little…Almost Nothing (revised edition, 2004) and Things Merely Are (2005). Simon Glendinning is Fellow in European Philosophy at the European Institute at the LSE. He obtained his PhD at Oxford and has taught in the Philosophy Departments at the Universities of Kent and Reading. His research has often engaged with figures and ideas from so-called ‘continental philosophy’ but he has always sought to address his writing to an English-speaking (and reading) audience. He is the author of On Being With Others: Heidegger-Derrida-Wittgenstein (1998) and is currently completing a book on 20th Century philosophy in Europe. He has published widely on issues in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of animal life. Jerry Goodenough is Tutor in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, researches and publishes in the field of personal identity and mind, and has a keen interest in philosophy, science fiction and the cinema. With Rupert Read he has been teaching an undergraduate unit on film and literature as philosophy at UEA for some years, and helps organise UEA’s philosophical film society ‘Philosophers at the Cinema’. Phil Hutchinson is Lecturer in Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University UK. His philosophical interests include (first) Wittgenstein, (then) film, Philosophical Method, and Ethics (virtue, character and per- sonhood). Any spare time is spent seeing and listening to music, which for about 60% of the time will be the John Coltrane Quartet. He’s con- vinced that there must be some profound philosophical significance to vii viii Notes on Contributors Elvin Jones’s drumming but has yet to discern it (don’t hold your breath). Stuart Klawans has been the film critic for The Nation since 1988 and contributes articles on film to the ‘Arts & Leisure’ section of The New York Times. He is the author of Film Follies: The Cinema Out of Order (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards, 1999) and Left in the Dark: Film Reviews and Essays, 1988–2001. His articles and essays have appeared in publications including Film Comment, Newsweek, The Village Voice, Grand Street, Parnassus: Poetry in Review, the book review sections of Newsday and The Chicago Tribune, and the TLS (for which he was the ‘American Notes’ columnist, 1989–91). He was a recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant (2003–04) for a critical study of the films of Preston Sturges. Andrew Klevan is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Kent where he teaches courses entitled Female Performance in Hollywood and Film Style, Interpretation and Evaluation. His essay ‘Guessing the Unseen from the Seen: Stanley Cavell and Film Interpretation’ appears in Contending with Stanley Cavell (ed. Russell Goodman 2005). He is author of two books on film: Disclosure of the Everyday: Undramatic Achievement in Narrative Film (2000) and Film Performance: From Achievement to Appreciation (2005). Stephen Mulhall is Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at New College, Oxford. His research presently focuses on Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, and so on the relations between politics, ethics and religion, as well as on the connections between philosophy and literature. His recent publications include: Inheritance and Originality (2001), On Film (2002) and Philosophical Myths of the Fall (2005). Rupert Read is Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (Norwich). His publications include The New Wittgenstein (2000) and Kuhn (2002), and papers in Philosophy, Philosophical Investigations, Philosophical Papers, Philosophical Forum, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Philosophical Psychology, and Philosophy Psychology Psychiatry. He enjoys debating in print with the likes of Michael Dummett, Noam Chomsky, Louis Sass and J.M. Coetzee. He is currently working on issues in the philosophy of maths, on Wittgenstein and Zen Buddhism, and on a manuscript on psychosis in film and philosophy. Notes on Contributors ix David Rudrum teaches at London Metropolitan University. His work explores the relationship between philosophy, literature, and film. He has edited a collection of essays on Literature and Philosophy: A Guide to Contemporary Debates (forthcoming 2005) and is currently preparing a monograph on Wittgenstein and the Theory of Narrative..

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