Cavell on Film

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Description

This extensive collection offers a substantially complete retrospective of Stanley Cavell's previously uncollected writings on film. Cavell is the only major philosopher in the Anglo-American tradition who has made film a central concern of his work, and his work offers inspiration and new directions to the field of film studies. The essays and other writings in this volume, presented in the order of their composition, range from major theoretical statements and extended critical studies of individual films or filmmakers to occasional pieces, all of which illuminate Cavell's practice of philosophy as it has developed in the more than three decades since the publication of The World Viewed. All periods of Cavell's career are represented, from the 1970s to the present, and the book includes many previously unpublished essays written since the early 1990s. In his introduction, William Rothman provides a useful and eloquent overview of Cavell's work on film and his aims as a philosopher more generally.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: William Rothman

1. What Becomes of Things on Film? (1978)
2. On Makavejev on Bergman (1979)
3. North by Northwest (1981)
4. The Fact of Television (1982)
5. The Thought of Movies (1983)
6. What (Good) Is a Film Museum? What Is a Film Culture? (1983)
7. What Photography Calls Thinking (1985)
8. A Capra Moment (1985)
9. The Fantastic of Philosophy (1986)
10. Two Cheers for Romance (1988)
11. The Advent of Videos (1988)
12. Prénom: Marie (1993)
13. Nothing Goes without Saying: Reading the Marx Brothers (1994)
14. Seasons of Love: Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night and The Winter’s Tale (1994)
15. Words of Welcome (1996)
16. Groundhog Day (1996)
17. Something Out of the Ordinary (1996)
18. The World as Things: Collecting Thoughts on Collecting (1998)
19. Concluding Remarks Presented at Paris Colloquium on La Projection du monde (1999)
20. On Eric Rohmer’s A Tale of Winter (1999)
21. The Image of the Psychoanalyst in Film (2000)
22. Opera in (and As) Film (2000)
23. Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow (2000)
24. The Good of Film (2000)
25. Moral Reasoning: Teaching from the Core (2001)
26. Crossing Paths (2002)
27. After Half a Century (2001)

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Esthétique et philosophie de l'art
• Película fotográfica
• Popular culture
• Visual culture
• History of film
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 21 avril 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 22
• EAN13: 9780791483404
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

e d i t e d a n d w i t h a n i n t r o d u c t i o n b y W I L L I A M R O T H M A N

Cavell on Film

the suny series O H O RI Z NS O C F I N E MA

murray pomeranc e | editor

Cavell on Film

=

Edited and with an Introduction by

William Rothman

S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2005 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2365

Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Susan M. Petrie

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Cavell, Stanley, 1926– Cavell on film / edited and with an introduction by William Rothman. p. cm — (SUNY series, horizons of cinema) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6431-8 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-7914-6432-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—Philosophy. I. Rothman, William. II. Title. III. Series. PN1995.C396 2005 791.43’01—dc22 2004010302

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List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction William Rothman

1.

2.

Contents

What Becomes of Things on Film? (1978)

On Makavejev on Bergman (1979)

3.North by Northwest(1981)

4.

5.

The Fact of Television (1982)

The Thought of Movies (1983)

6. What (Good) Is a Film Museum? What Is a Film Culture? (1983)

7.

8.

9.

10.

What Photography Calls Thinking (1985)

A Capra Moment (1985)

The Fantastic of Philosophy (1986)

Two Cheers for Romance (1988)

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vii

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1

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1

1

41

5

9

8

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135

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153

11.

24.

22.

21.

13.

19.

vi

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305

333

16.

Groundhog Day(1996)

15.

14.

12.

Words of Welcome (1996)

Prénom:Marie (1993)

18.

After Half a Century (2001)

Moral Reasoning: Teaching from the Core (2001)

25.

23.

20.

The World as Things: Collecting Thoughts on Collecting (1998)

193

295

349

Seasons of Love: Bergman’sSmiles of a Summer Night andThe Winter’s Tale(1994)

241

281

287

Index

26.

27.

Opera in (and As) Film (2000)

375

383

361

175

167

183

223

Something Out of the Ordinary (1996)

221

205

The Advent of Videos (1988)

Crossing Paths (2002)

Contents

Nothing Goes without Saying: Reading the Marx Brothers (1994)

The Good of Film (2000)

Concluding Remarks Presented at Paris Colloquium on La Projection du monde(1999)

The Image of the Psychoanalyst in Film (2000)

17.

Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow (2000)

On Eric Rohmer’sA Tale of Winter(1999)

Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.3.

Figure 2.1. Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.2. Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.4. Figure 3.5. Figure 3.6.

Figure 3.7.

Figure 5.1. Figure 7.1.

Figure 7.2. Figure 7.3. Figure 7.4. Figure 7.5.

Illustrations

The universe in a coffee cup(Two or Three Things I Know about Her) Rough barman(Two or Three Things I Know about Her) Gleaming beer dispenser(Two or Three Things I Know about Her) The talking head(WR: Mysteries of the Organism) “ROT”: Roger Thornhill’s trademark(North by Northwest) Eve’s face(North by Northwest) Eve’s face dissolving into prairie landscape(North by Northwest) Prairie landscape(North by Northwest) Cary Grant’s face illuminated(North by Northwest) Mount Rushmore viewed through telescope (North by Northwest) Grant viewing through telescope(North by Northwest) A new way of inhabiting time(The Awful Truth) The unscrupulous publisher snaps a picture (The Philadelphia Story) Wedding photo #1(The Philadelphia Story) Wedding photo #2(The Philadelphia Story) Wedding photo #3(The Philadelphia Story) Gary Cooper playing the tuba(Mr. Deeds Goes to Town) vii

8

8

8 37

44 49

49 49 50

51

51 90

121 121 121 121

131

viii

Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.2.

Figure 8.3.

Figure 10.1.

Figure 10.2.

Figure 13.1.

Figure 17.1.

Figure 17.2.

Figure 17.3.

Illustrations

“A man and a woman are walking away from us down an empty country road”(It Happened One Night) Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert cross a stream shattered by stars(It Happened One Night) Gable and Colbert resist an embrace(It Happened One Night) Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur kiss repeatedly as the music swells(Mr. Deeds Goes to Town) Dr. Jaquith and Charlotte sit on the floor studying architectural plans(Now, Voyager) Groucho and Chico all but become mirror images of each other(Duck Soup) Fred Astaire having a picture taken of “the shine on his shoes”(The Band Wagon) Astaire walking down the train platform, filmed in such a way that we never see his feet (The Band Wagon) Astaire’s feet first appear to us as we cut to him walking into the station(The Band Wagon)

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Acknowledgments

E XCEPT FOR MINOR REVISIONS TO assure consistency of format, and the addition of a number of frame enlargements, I have not altered the writ- ings in this volume. “Prénom:Marie” was originally published in Maryel Locke and Charles Warren, editors,Jean-Luc Godard’sHail Mary:Women and the Sacred in Film(Southern Illinois University Press, 1993); “Words of Welcome” appeared in Charles Warren, editor,Beyond Document(Wesleyan University Press, 1996), “After Half a Century” was the epilogue to Robert Warshow, The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics, Theatre, and Other Aspects of Popular Culture(Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2001). All are reprinted by permission of these publishers. I am grateful to Stanley Cavell for permission to include all the other materials in the present collection, for the unfailing support, encourage- ment, and friendship he has offered at every stage of this project, and for the inspiration his writing and teaching have provided to me—as to so many—over the years.

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