Table of Contents

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

About the Author

Noël Carroll is the Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Temple University and the author of Beyond Aesthetics (2001), A Philosophy of Mass Art (1999), and Interpreting the Moving Image (1998).

Jinhee Choi is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and The British Journal of Aesthetics.

Reviews

“While theoretically inclined film scholars continue to recycle the theories of Lacan and Deleuze, analytical philosophers have quietly assumed the leading edge of film theory. This judicious collection of essays, framed by thoughtful commentaries, provides an ideal introduction to the field of analytic film theory for students of philosophy and film alike.” Richard Allen, New York University

“The philosophy of film and motion pictures has flourished in the last forty years or so, and Carroll and Choi’s anthology offers a marvelous overview of the chief issues. This volume assembles many of the best contributions by contemporary philosophers, and will serve as an excellent textbook in relevant courses. I expect it will also be an important stimulus to further research.” George Wilson, University of Southern California