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Robert Sinnerbrink: “What is a Philosophical Reading of Film?”

 

“What is a Philosophical Reading of Film? On Film- Philosophy and Philosophical Film Criticism”

Friday, September 29, 11AM–1PM Université Gustave Eiffel
Salle 3V071, Bâtiment Copernic, 3e étage 5 Bd Descartes, 77454 Champs-sur-Marne

To celebrate the release of the first volume in the TV/Philosophy Series collection, Australian cinema philosopher Robert Sinnerbrink will be present in Paris from September 27 to 30. Specialist in the field of film philosophy, Robert Sinnerbrink is the author of three important works: New Philosophies of Film (2011), Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film (2015) and Terrence Malick: Filmmaker and Philosopher (2019).

At the invitation of the film studies department of Gustave Eiffel University, he will speak on Friday, September 29 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the philosophical reading of films.

Abstract :

In this talk I wish to explore the ways in which philosophers of film and film-philosophers write about cinema and examine the kind of critical hermeneutic practices they deploy in various approaches to the idea of “film as philosophy.” As many critics maintain, there are important methodological questions raised by the role of philosophical interpretation of film and more explicit philosophical film criticism (e.g., Stanley Cavell's readings of film) and how these approaches relate to but also differ from more familiar forms of film analysis and interpretation. The question of what makes a particular reading or interpretation of a film “philosophical,' however, has received surprisingly little attention within the “film as philosophy” debate. In my talk I shall outline some of the main approaches to this question (illustrative/exemplary interpretations; critical aesthetic interpretations; critical symptomatic interpretations; and dialogical/reflective interpretations), suggesting that one common feature that philosophical readings share - or ought to share - is a concern to stage a mutually reflective or critically transformative encounter between cinema and philosophy. This does not mean reducing film to philosophy or philosophy to film but exploring what I have elsewhere called a “hermeneutic parallelism” between cinematic expression and philosophical reflection.

To get to the Gustave Eiffel University of Champs- sur-Marne from Paris, take the RER A towards Marne- la-Vallée, get off at Noisy-Champs station and take exit 2 (west exit), to reach the Copernic building, located 5 Bd Descartes. The entrance to the research room (3V071) where the conference will take place is located on the 3rd floor. It is advisable to use the stairs.

Online registration: https://forms.gle/DF2YcQ6vVca7WTfp8

Information: hugo.clemot@univ-eiffel.fr