Course Syllabus

Syllabus - Film.pdf

Course Description

Considering how recently it has appeared as an artform, film has received more philosophical attention than any other artistic medium, except perhaps literature. It may be because of its novelty or its relative accessibility, but film has never been far from philosophy. Even as early as the silent film era, there has been a sustained attempt to determine the meaning of this new way of making art.

This new medium certainly entails traditional problems of aesthetics – those of representation, expression, form, truth, etc. However, each medium provides issues unique to its nature. Film is not the same as the visual arts of painting and photography, despite the centrality of the image. Unlike these artforms, movies move and they speak. Nor is film like the dramatic arts of dance and theater, though it may be closer. Film frames the eye in a way that the others do not and needs not proceed through continuous time. Film uses techniques to create montage, close-up, slow-motion and flashbacks. In short, though film may share certain qualities with other artforms, it is its own medium with philosophical questions unique to it.

In this course, we will discuss a set of interwoven questions. What is the nature of film as an artform? Does film tell the truth or represent reality and, if so, what is an artwork’s meaning? Why do films affect our emotions as they do? What is the relation between the form of film and its moral or political content? Is film an instrument of ideology, or a way to expose social power. Can film speak to philosophical issues?

A final note – This means that this course is on philosophy of film, not philosophy and film. This course is a philosophical discussion that takes film as its subject. It does not use film primarily as a means to examine general philosophical ideas. For example, we could watch Mulholland Drive to discuss surrealism or personal identity. Instead, we will typically discuss it to examine film narrative.