A philosophical study of popular movies uses the viewer as a point of reference.

Projecting Illusion offers a systematic analysis of the impression of reality in the cinema and the pleasure it gives to the film spectator. Film provides a compelling experience that can be considered as a form of illusion akin to the experience of day-dream and dream. Examining the concept of illusion and its relationship to fantasy in the experience of visual representation, Richard Allen situates his explanation within the context of an analytical criticism of contemporary film and critical theory. He argues (...) that many contemporary film theorists correctly identify the significance of the impression of reality, although their explanation of it is incorrect because of an invalid philosophical understanding of the relationship between the mind, representation and reality. Offering a clear presentation and critique of the central arguments of contemporary film and critical theory, Allen also touches on fundamental issues in current discourses of philosophy, art history and feminist theory. (shrink)

This book proposes that aesthetics begin not with concepts of being or semblance, but with a concept of appearing. Appearing bespeaks of the reality that all aesthetic objects share, however different they may otherwise be. For Martin Seel, appearing plays its part everywhere in the aesthetic realm, in all aesthetic activity. In his book, Seel examines the existential and cultural meaning of aesthetic experience. In doing so, he brings aesthetics and philosophy of art together again, which in continental as well (...) as analytical thinking have been more and more separated in the recent decades. Within Seel’s framework, to apprehend things and events with respect to how they appear momentarily and simultaneously to our senses represents a genuine way for human beings to encounter the world. The consciousness that emerges here is an anthropologically central faculty. In perceiving the unfathomable particularity of a sensuously given we gain insight into the indeterminable of our lives. Attentiveness to what is appearing is therefore at the same time attentiveness to ourselves. This is also the case when works of art imagine past or future, probable or improbable presences. Artworks develop their transgressive energy from their presence as sense-catching forms. They bring about a special presence in which a presentation of close or distant presences comes about. (shrink)

Am Beispiel des Films „Lady in the Lake” führt der Aufsatz Aspekte vor, die die Welt eines Films auszeichnen. „Lady in the Lake”, argumentiert der Autor, scheitert in fundamentaler Hinsicht daran, ein Film zu sein. Bei der Beschreibung dieses Scheiterns werde deutlich, was einen Film ausmache. Der Kern des Scheiterns bestehe darin, dass es „Lady in the Lake” nicht gelinge, dem Zuschauer die Erfahrung einer visuellen Absorption zu ermöglichen. Dadurch, dass die Schauspieler im Film den Zuschauer direkt adressieren, unterminieren sie (...) das Vermögen des Zuschauers, sie als Figuren wahrzunehmen, die die narrative Welt eines Films bewohnen. (shrink)