Philosophy 2300
PHILOSOPHY OF FILM
Spring 2006

In the century since its invention, film (a handy term for moving pictures in whatever medium) has become not only an unexpected new art form but virtually a standard kind of experience for people who spend much of their time watching shows on screens–that is to say, for a very large proportion of people in our society. What kind of experience do we have by means of film? What does it mean that film is not only an experience a person might have, but a way of experiencing reality? What is discovered, obscured, presented, repressed, concluded, or confused by means of the camera-editing arts? What can we learn about the character of human experience more broadly from studying film experience? How are the central philosophical questions about reality, knowledge, meaning, and value affected by film?

In this course we will use philosophical methods, forming concepts and theses and arguments with the greatest possible care and freedom in conversation with earlier landmark exercises of thought, to assess the nature of film and its significance in human life. We will explore film experience as a site of philosophy and an important philosophical problem in its own right.

Readings will be assigned in handouts and in this book, available in the bookstore:
Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds., Film Theory and Criticism (6th ed.)

The course grade will be determined by:
Class participation 10%
Weekly writings 35%
Midterm exam 15%
Final exam 15%
Term project 25%

PROPOSED SCHEDULE subject to revision by announcement in class or by e-mail

READINGS from Film Theory and Concepts (FTAC) are listed here. There will also be assigned readings in handouts. VIEWINGS are of films on videotape or DVD held by the Millsaps library. Usually it will make the most sense to do the week's readings before the viewing.

Three Southern Circuit films are being shown at Millsaps this semester more or less inside our class time, and we will attend all three. They are listed on their screening dates below. Class will run a bit later those three nights–allow till 9:45 p.m. Further information on the films can be found at http://www.millsaps.edu/classics/scfs.shtml.

Meet
Jan. 17 Introduction to class. The issue of the character of experience; the idea of film experience.

Jan. 24 The photographic character of film and issues of perception
READ: Kracauer, "Basic Concepts," FTAC 143-153
Bazin, "The Ontology of the Photographic Image," FTAC 166-170
Cavell, "Photograph and Screen," FTAC 344-345
VIEW: Ron Fricke, Baraka

Jan. 31 Documentary
READ: Kracauer, "The Establishment of Physical Existence," FTAC 303-313
VIEW: Peter Davis, Hearts and Minds

Feb. 7 The special (?) case of animation
READ: Panofsky, "Style and Medium in Motion Pictures," FTAC 289-302
VIEW: Walt Disney, Fantasia
SOUTHERN CIRCUIT FILM: A Brief History of Voting/Dancing Dog/The Planets/Poetry in Motion by Francesca Talenti

Feb. 14 Film and dream
READ: TBA
VIEW: Jean Vigo, L'Atalante

Feb. 21 Montage; film synthesis and social synthesis
READ: Eisenstein, "Beyond the Shot" and "The Dramaturgy of Film Form," FTAC 13-40
VIEW: Sergei Eisenstein, The Battleship Potemkin

Feb. 28 Montage vs. (?) mise-en-scène; the "time-image"
READ: Bazin, "The Evolution of the Language of Cinema," FTAC 41-53
VIEW: Orson Welles, Citizen Kane
MIDTERM EXAM

Mar. 7 Film as personal synthesis and the auteur theory
READ: Sarris, "Notes on the Auteur Theory," FTAC 561-564
Peter Wollen, "The Auteur Theory," FTAC 565-580
VIEW: Federico Fellini, 8 1/2
SOUTHERN CIRCUIT FILM: All Rendered Truth by Patrick Long

SPRING BREAK

Mar. 21 Race in film
READ: Diawara, "Black Spectatorship," FTAC 892-900
VIEW: Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing
DUNBAR LECTURE: Lucius Outlaw, "Education, Academic Philosophy and the Strategic Production of Ignorance"

Mar. 28 Desire in film/gender I
READ: Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," FTAC 837-848
VIEW: Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window
READ: Modleski, "The Master's Dollhouse: Rear Window," FTAC 849-861

MAR. 31-APR. 2 CROSSROADS FILM FESTIVAL

Apr. 4 Desire in film/gender II
READ: TBA
VIEW: Agnès Varda, Cléo from 5 to 7
SOUTHERN CIRCUIT FILM: The Birdpeople by Michael Gitlin

Apr. 11 Film as questioning
READ: Wollen, "Godard and Counter-Cinema," FTAC 525-533
VIEW: Jean-Luc Godard, Notre Musique

Apr. 18 Revisiting the cinema of attractions; Iranian cinema
READ: Gunning, "An Aesthetic of Astonishment," FTAC 862-876
VIEW: Abbas Kiarostami, The Wind Will Carry Us . . .

Apr. 25 CLASS FILM FESTIVAL

Final exam Tuesday, May 2, 6:30 p.m.

RESOURCES

In the library you will find much of interest in the film journals to which Millsaps subscribes, Film Quarterly and (online only) Film Comment, Film and History, and Film History. There are useful general sources in the Reference section like Halliwell's Film Guide and Film Encyclopedia. We also have numerous books on film theory, film history, particular genres, and particular directors.

Some very useful books on reserve for this course are:
Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art
Dennis DeNitto, Film: Form and Feeling
These books discuss the components of filmmaking, film aesthetics and history, and approaches to the critical study of film. Corrigan is the shortest and most practical
(for beginners), Bordwell and Thompson is the most extensive, and DeNitto for many purposes is just right.

If you want to see a particular film that isn't in the Millsaps library or any of the local video stores, you might be able to rent it from an online source, e.g. Facets Video in Chicago (www.facets.org).

WEEKLY WRITINGS AND EXAM ESSAYS

The purpose of the assigned writings in the course is to practice noticing features of film experience and thinking about its nature and implications–and about meaningful human experience more broadly. Most assignments will explicitly direct you to relate ideas that are presented in class and readings to specific features of the films that we view. Grades on writing will reflect the degree to which you fulfill these criteria:

(1) Thoughtful grappling with ideas and arguments that have been introduced in the course, with
(2) sensitive perception of actual ingredients of films viewed, and
(3) effective use of English.

[A=excellent, B=good, C=satisfactory, D=unsatisfactory/passing, F=not passing]

QUESTIONS FOR SOUTHERN CIRCUIT FILMMAKERS

We will participate in the question-and-answer session with the filmmaker following the screening of each Southern Circuit film. We will ask the best questions because we will be the film-smartest, film-lovingest people there–or if there's anyone else there at our level, we'll outnumber them. On the following Tuesday you will submit along with your normal weekly writing assignment a one-paragraph note reporting at least one question you formulated for the Southern Circuit filmmaker and the essence of the filmmaker's answer (if your question did get answered) or (if it didn't) how you imagine the filmmaker might best respond to it, based on what you saw and heard.

Here are some samples of potentially fruitful questions:

Artistic intent
Good general "fishing expedition" questions include: What was the guiding idea of your project? How did your ideas evolve in the making of the project? What were the hardest creative decisions? Who/what are your greatest filmmaking influences? etc.
More specific questions, linked to actual elements in the film, can be better: How did you decide on that music? How did you design the montage in such-and-such a sequence? What were you going for by shooting that segment in black-and-white? etc.

Interpretation of product
It seems to me the meaning of X (some element in the film, e.g. a theme) is Y. Or: I'm not sure what the meaning of X is. How do you think about that?
Your film seems to me to fit into the contemporary film scene in such-and-such a way (e.g. with or against a certain trend). How do you think about that?
(Using theory resources from our class:) Do you think of film primarily as a representation of physical reality? As a mind game? As part of social progress? etc.

Technical
How did you achieve a particular visual or sound quality? How did you get an actor to behave in a certain way? etc.

FIVE KINDS OF QUESTION THAT WILL BE IMPORTANT IN THIS COURSE
(AND SOME OF THE PHILOSOPHERS WHO HAVE ADDRESSED THESE QUESTIONS MOST POWERFULLY)

1. The question of essential form. (Cf. Plato's dialogues in which Socrates tries to find an adequate definition of something like virtue or justice.) What makes a phenomenon the kind of thing it is? What is the essence of an art work, e.g.? What is the distinctive essence of cinematic art works or cinematic experience? (There's a sophisticated 20th-century version of this line of investigation pioneered by Husserl and Scheler called "phenomenology.")

2. The question of evidence. (Cf. Descartes' methodical skepticism and conquest of skepticism in his Meditations on First Philosophy.) How is reality evident to us–what counts, in perception and thought, as revealing or indicating reality? What constitutes trustworthy evidence? Our more carefully considered judgments of reality sometimes diverge from our spontaneous sense-based convictions.

3. The question of coherence. (Cf. Kant's transcendental arguments in Critique of Pure Reason.) Under what conditions is meaningful experience possible? What rules must be followed for putting experience together? The idea here is that our world is a construct. (There's a linguistic version of this question that Wittgenstein developed: How do we follow rules in order to say meaningful things, or: What is the "grammar" of our "forms of life" that support the things we are able to say?)

4. The question of history. (Cf. Hegel's historically structured articulation of experience in The Phenomenology of Spirit.) How does our experience of reality depend on real historical developments and conscious participation in such developments? The idea here is that our reality is an evolving work-in-progress.

5. The question of essential deception. (Cf. Marxian, Freudian, feminist, postcolonial, and other critical theories.). How is our experience of reality typically warped or constricted by social and psychological forces like class struggle, repression of desires, male-centered culture, European-centered culture, etc.?

THE TERM PROJECT

Proposals for the term project are welcome, and negotiable. Most term projects will consist either of (1) a 10-12 pp. philosophical study of one or more examples of film, or (2) a film made by the student as a philosophical study, with an accompanying presentation (2-3 pp. in its written form) of rationale and findings. All projects should be discussed in advance with the instructor, with a working plan approved before Spring Break.

SOME COURSE RULES

1. Class attendance. Being in class, being engaged with the work of the class, and behaving courteously are all expected. One discourtesy to avoid is coming into class late. Better late than never, definitely; but lateness counts as half an absence.
One percent of the course grade will be lost for each absence from class for any reason, beginning with the third absence. For these purposes, each week's class meeting is equal to two classes--thus, to miss either the first or second segment of a week's meeting would equal one absence. To illustrate, someone who totaled 7 absences would thereby lose 5% of the course grade, or half a letter grade. The reason for this: our in-class work is a crucial and irreplaceable part of the substance of the course.

2. Hardcopy required. Unless I've expressly stated otherwise, or unless I grant you permission in extraordinary circumstances, I expect every out-of-class writing assignment to be submitted by its deadline in a printed-out version rather than electronically. This makes a big difference in the effectiveness and efficiency with which I can respond to your writing performance as well as your ideas. Do, however, save copies of all your work, electronically if possible.

3. Late papers. Written assignments turned in late will lose a letter grade or equivalent. Homework may not be turned in more than one week after its due date. No work of any kind will be accepted after the last day of final examinations. Exceptions to this policy will be granted only to the victims of unforeseeable and uncontrollable circumstances.

4. Academic honor. All members of the Millsaps community are pledged to uphold academic honor, the core of which is refraining from giving or receiving unauthorized aid on any assignment. I particularly caution against plagiarism, that is, using the words or ideas of others without acknowledgement. Plagiarized work means a mandatory referral to the Honor Council and may result in expulsion from the class.

5. Incompletes. An "Incomplete" grade for the course will be given only to students who, due to unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances, find themselves unable to complete course requirements during the term and can reasonably be expected to complete them within a few weeks after the term's end. The "Incomplete" must be requested and appropriately justified before the end of final examinations.

6. Disabilities. Students with documented disabilities should discuss their needs with the instructor at the beginning of the semester.