Filmosophy [Paperback]

Daniel Frampton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1904764843 | ISBN-13: 978-1904764847 | Publication Date: October 5, 2006

Filmosophy is a provocative new manifesto for a radically philosophical way of understanding cinema. It coalesces twentieth-century ideas of film as thought (from Hugo Münsterberg to Gilles Deleuze) into a practical theory of "film-thinking," arguing that film style conveys poetic ideas through a constant dramatic "intent" about the characters, spaces, and events of film. Discussing contemporary filmmakers such as Béla Tarr and the Dardenne brothers, this timely contribution to the study of film and philosophy will provoke debate among audiences and filmmakers alike.

FILMOSOPHY ® is a registered U.S. trademark owned by Valentin Stoilov (www.filmosophy.com) for educational services in the field of motion picture history theory and production. Mr. Stoilov is not the source or origin of this book and has not sponsored or endorsed it or its author.

(6/1/2007)

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[An] elegant, deftly argued book... Essential.

(CHOICE )

Review

About every fifteen years, it seems, contemporary film theory takes what is commonly called a 'turn.' The Psychoanalytic Turn of the Sixties and Seventies was followed by the Historiographic Turn that took us through much of the Eighties and Nineties. But now we are fully into a Philosophic Turn. Deleuze kicked off the trend in France in 1983 with his cinema books, followed by various certified philosophers exploring their passions for cinema - Bernard Stiegler, Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, and Jacques Rancire, among others. The U.S. already had Stanley Cavell working in this area. Now, with books such as Daniel Frampton's boldly argued Filmosophy appearing, hard-line cinephilia and hardline philosophy have merged'

(Adrian Martin Cineaste )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wallflower Press (October 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904764843
• ISBN-13: 978-1904764847
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #816,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Practice What You Preach (Or Else...), August 23, 2009

By 

Anon. (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Filmosophy (Hardcover)

Despite the silly neologisms (such as "filmind" for film-mind, and, of course, "filmosophy") there is some solid material here on the long-standing interest, in film theory, in the relation between cinema and mind. In what way does a film "think" the things it shows us, and how is this thinking like and unlike human thinking? The strongest passages in the book evolve Frampton's explication of arguments on this subject by Münsterberg, Eisenstein and Deleuze. (The more familiar you are with this material the less likely you are to accept the book's claim to being "a manifesto for a radically new way of understanding cinema.") Where the book really fails, I think, is in failing to provide a good example of what a filmosophical engagement with individual films would actually look like. Frampton's basic argument is that approaching cinema from the position of filmosophy allows for the realization of a new, more complex engagement with the richness of the film experience. But he never demonstrates this. When he does mention a film, he rarely has more than a few sentences of commentary about it. Instead, he spends a great deal of time repeating the same series of claims that he makes in the introduction. Stating something over and over again doesn't make it so. It just makes the reader increasingly less convinced by the arguments placed in front of them...

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Flashy title attracts - Gross error prohibits, February 19, 2009

By 

A. Zodorozny "Student of French & Film Theory" (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Filmosophy (Paperback)

The title intrigued me. That being said, Frampton dishes up what has already been said by people before him, just in a new cover. Don't be fooled by those flashy descriptors on the cover like "manifesto" and "radical." You won't find anything life altering here.

What really did it in was his attributing Kristin Thompson's development of using concepts from the Russian neoformalists in film theory to David Bordwell. He wrongly indicates the ideas as being "Bordwell's" dozens of times and never even credits Thompson, despite her writing the book on the subject.

Nice try Frampton, better luck next time.

-Film Theory student who sees through Frampton's desperate and futile attempts to revolutionize the world of film theory as pathetic and poorly executed.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Future is Film, January 12, 2009

By 

Larry Went "I Went" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Filmosophy (Hardcover)

Filmosophy is accessible for those with anything from a limited to an encyclopedic knowledge of film theory. It posits a new way of thinking through film and by film. Film poetry becomes a philosophy - a way of explaining and understanding the 21st century. This book is destined to become a set text on all graduate film courses - I enjoyed it. If this is too expensive, why not try:

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