Futures of Film Criticism: Aesthetics, Cinephilia, Philosophy, and Politics
Abstract
This is an “integrated-article” dissertation that examines new approaches to academic film criticism following what has been called the “philosophical turn” in Film Studies. By arguing that philosophical research has as much to offer film analysis as films can contribute to philosophy, each chapter proposes a method of film criticism influenced by debates in Continental Philosophy. Chapters one, two, and four put prominent thinkers such as Georges Bataille, Jacques Rancière, and Theodor Adorno into a dialogue with films by directors such as Claire Denis, Staub-Huillet, Jean-Luc Godard, and Terrence Malick to account for various creative choices and critical interpretations. Chapters three and five curate a series of imagined philosophical conversations together on cinephilia in an attempt to imagine a new film criticism that engages with what I call “cineroticism,” and “cool cinema.” Chapter six takes a more formal approach to film criticism, moving beyond questions of meaning to appreciate narrative play in the films of Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo. These chapters each address new debates in Continental Philosophy and film criticism. The last chapter ties all these approaches together, blending philosophy, film and literary analysis, and auto-theory to meditate on the cinephile that I am, and to self-reflexively examine the experience of my gender transition. Godard has said, “I think that an interesting book on film would be for a viewer, not to be a film critic but to tell their story as a viewer, to make a kind of cinephile film if you like.” My final chapter, and the dissertation as a whole, is an attempt to realize this idea.