Film as Philosophy: Essays on Cinema after Wittgenstein and Cavell

226 Pages·2005·1.69 MB·English

by  Rupert Read

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 bephilosophy. 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 philo-
sophy over the years, to the many participants in our Philosophers at the
Cinemafilm series, and to our fellow teacher, film theorist and philo-
sopher, 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 Baueris 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
calledHow 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 Glendinningis 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 Hutchinsonis 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) andLeft in
the Dark: Film Reviews and Essays, 1988–2001. His articles and essayshave
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 Hollywoodand
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 Rudrumteaches 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.