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Reviews 'Filmosophy
proposes a kind of 'intelligent design' for film. Movies are so beautiful,
complex and rich, Frampton has decided, that there must be some great Being
behind each of them. This is why his book is so moving. Like Heidegger, he at
times writes like a dream. He adores cinema and believes that there is a kind
of god for every film, rendering Filmosophy a book of
religious intensity. Irritating, invaluable, wrong, unforgettable – and
daft as a brush.' (Book of the Month) --- Mark Cousins, Sight and Sound, vol. 16 no. 11, November 2006. 'Frampton's engaging style makes for an exciting read . . . and
his overview of the innovations of previous thinkers – Deleuze, Epstein,
Artaud, Bal‡zs, Cavell, Derrida, etc. – give this its feel of a
must-have manual for fans of the discourse.' --- Amy Cutler, Cherwell, vol. 246 no. 5, 3 November 2006. 'This elegant, deftly argued book has a
seemingly simple premise: films present a coherent worldview and contain,
within their frames, a philosophy of being that influences audiences around
the world in ways seldom carefully examined. In a series of concise chapters,
Frampton discusses the impact of the filmic vision on viewersÕ selves, daily
consciousness, reactive thought processes, writing, and overall worldview.
What makes this book so especially attractive is the wide range of films the
author discusses, from Patch Adams to The
Last Laugh and all stops in between. Frampton
obviously has the whole world of film at his fingertips, and he uses both
familiar and more obscure films to illustrate his central thesis. As
compelling as it is original, the book offers nothing less than an entirely new
approach to film studies from a more spectatorial point of view. Although
Frampton cites major film theorists of the past 50 years with easy assurance,
he adds an entirely new perspective to the ongoing discussion. Summing Up:
Essential.' (Selected as a 2007 "Choice Outstanding Academic Title"
award winner) ---
Wheeler Winston Dixon, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries,
July 2007. 'Filmosophy
is a well-conceived manifesto
for how film can be perceived as a
philosophy unto itself, with intriguing exploration of a viewerÕs
relationship with film and vice versa.' --- Danny
Graydon, Review of Filmosophy, Empire,
December 2006. 'Filmosophy
argues that ÔÔcinema is a world of its own . . . a flat, ordered, compressed
world . . . a world that is a cousin of realityÕÕ which, for those of us
21st-century beings, is ÔÔthe second world we live in. A second world that
feeds and shapes our perception and understanding of reality.ÕÕ Ten chapters
seek to explain the act of ÔÔfilm-thinkingÕÕ: creating and intending meaning
simultaneously.' --- Bruce
Austin, Communication Booknotes Quarterly, vol. 38
no. 2, Spring 2007. 'The key motive of filmosophy is the author's emphasis on the
aesthetic character of film works. Be it his accentuation of a radical
difference between a filmgoer's mind and the filmind, be it his harsh
criticism of cognitivists for their dominant interest in story, or his rave
for a new kind of filmgoer experience – there is always a call for the
forgotten aesthetic autonomy of a film detectable in the background. I am
sure that thanks to this aesthetic undertone filmosophical readers will have
more to think about.' --- Tereza Hadravov‡, 'Filmosophy:
Re-Imagining the Moving Image', Vertigo,
vol. 3 no. 8, Spring 2008. --- Tereza
Hadravov‡, 'O filmbytostech,
filmyslich, a dalsich filmonstrech/On the Filmbeings, Filminds, and
Other Filmonsters: Review of Filmosophy by Daniel Frampton', Iluminace, vol. 19 no. 2, Praha, 2007, p. 129 – 131. [Czech;
full-length version of Vertigo review above] 'Filmosophy
functions as a wonderful introduction and overview . . . concerning the
conceptualisation of filmic thought and how it relates to our own thinking.
The idea that film produces thinking or is related to the human mind has
always been around in the history of cinema, but it has never been so
rigorously discussed or elaborated upon as in Frampton's book. Fimosophy
truly lays down an outline as well as a clear start off point for a new way
of thinking about cinematic images.' --- Ils
Huygens, Review
of Filmosophy, Scope: An Online Journal of Film and TV Studies,
no. 10, February 2008. --- Roland
Kampferer, Review of Filmosophy, Frieze, no. 102,
October 2006. 'Filmosophy
will prove useful for any young student who gets caught in the
ever-proliferating world of cognitivist and formal criticism, where
evidentiality takes precedence over any fresh insight. . . . It proposes that
film is sort of doing philosophy in its own way. We do not need to apply philosophical
language or terms to comprehend the film; film itself is a philosophical
problematic working itself out. We donÕt need to think about the
intentionality behind the camera, but the problematic in front of it. . . . Filmosophy
is an often very engaging, always passionate attempt to get to grips with
film problems that arenÕt going to go away.' --- Tony
McKIbbin, Review of Filmosophy, Senses of Cinema,
no. 43, April-June 2007. --- Martin
Marzidovšek, 'Filmski
Biti', Ekran:
Revija Za Film in Televizijo, vol. 32 letnik XLIV,
April-Maj 2007. [Slovinian] --- Mike
Rot, The Filmosophy Manifesto, The Pagan Agenda,
18 August 2007. --- Ronald
Rovers, Review of Filmosophy, De Filmkrant, no. 284,
January 2007. [Dutch] 'Immensely
rewarding and stimulating. The spirit of the book is one which reminds me of
the great soothsayers of modern painting – Apollinaire, Kandinsky, Kokoschka, Marinetti, Malevich and others – and it is little wonder that
Frampton relies on many writers of the 1920s who pulsated with the future
promise of cinema: Dulac,
Epstein, Eisenstein, Balazs. There is indeed a future
promise in Filmosophy: that the future of cinema is alive and well,
and some of us are awaiting its thoughts with excited anticipation.' --- Richard Rushton, Review of Filmosophy, Screen,
vol. 49 no. 2, Summer 2008. 'Daniel
FramptonÕs remarkable Filmosophy is a book
that squarely confronts the question: how should we speak about film? What
kind of philosophical writing does justice to the experience of cinema?
Frampton cuts through the Gordian knot of contemporary film debates
concerning 'subjective' versus 'objective' forms of the image, authorial
intention, auteurism, apparatus theory, narratology, cognitive
problem-solving, and so on. One should salute FramptonÕs achievement: Filmosophy
elaborates a strikingly original conceptualization of film experience which
also synthesizes much of the history of philosophical reflection on the
cinema.' --- Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University), Review of Filmosophy, Projections: The Journal for
Movies and Mind, vol. 1 no. 2, 2008. 'Scanning
FramptonÕs marvelously wrought genealogies is a fine refresher course in
film-theoretical writing, and engaging with his ideas is a stimulating way to
rethink oneÕs own notions of what cinema is, can be, and should be. . . . If
there is truth in FramptonÕs claim that for filmosophy 'film is the beginning
and the future of our thoughtÕ, then his commitment to innovative theory and
forward-looking criticism is necessary, timely, and welcome.' --- David
Sterritt, Review of Filmosophy, Film International,
vol. 6 no. 2, 2008. 'Frampton spurs his readers to free themselves from the chains
of theory-based filmgoing in the name of a liberating pure aesthetic
experience.' --- Emilia Terracciano, Review of Filmosophy, Contemporary
Magazine, 2006. 'Filmosophy
is bursting with energy and revolutionary zeal. But it is also more tempered
than one might expect. If it has an edge of dogmatism, it is slightly ironic.
Its refutations of other approaches are more scholarly than vitriolic. And
while its assertions are often righteous, they are coupled with a palpable
and inspiring belief in the possibilities of Þlm, thinking about Þlm,
and thinking through Þlm, that promises to revitalise original and innovative
Þlm investigation.' --- Lisa
Trahair, 'Film Theory', The Year's
Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 2008. 'Offering an innovative paradigm for conceptualising film, this
bold provocation and manifesto . . . daringly confronts the long history of
film theory and convincingly proposes a new organic philosophy of film. The
author also engages with, and builds on, more modern philosophical paradigms
of cinematic thought-images (Deleuze) and develops ideas of film-thought far
beyond these original conceptions. Frampton clears the proverbial decks, and
his new model, grounded in diverse and contemporary filmic examples,
postulates the idea of a film-being and film-thinking whereby a 'filmind'
creates a universe inhabited by the subjects and objects that it is capable
of thinking about.' --- Unknown author, Review of Filmosophy, Forum for Modern Language Studies, vol. 43 no. 4, October 2007, p.
473. |
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