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'A passionate and earnest ‘call-to-arms’ regarding the state of film studies, Daniel Frampton’s Filmosophy (2006) is a highly ambitious book. . . . Frampton’s work argues that film is a radically unique art form, which is able to ‘think’ its own world. Part of Frampton’s project is to propose a new vocabulary with which we can apprehend cinema: one which will allow us to talk about, write about, and experience the world of film in a way that cognitivist discourse has previously stifled. . . . Frampton’s thought-provoking book is refreshing in its attempts to re-conceptualise the way in which we consider the visual image, and is passionate in its belief that cinema and visual culture has been poorly used. . . . Frampton argues that our understanding of our relationship to the image is woefully incomplete, and that we should see film as formulating its own philosophy: we should see film as a kind of future thinking.'

--- Alexia Bowler, Review of Filmosophy, New Cinemas, vol. 6 no. 1, 2008.

'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.

'[T]his is an ambitious book. It seeks to shake up how we think and write about cinema. Quite rightly, Frampton wants to push aside the stale technicist language of film theory and put us back in phenomenological touch with the experience of film. Not everyone will share his taste for Deleuzian philosophy, but he certainly lays down some new ways of thinking about film images and the cinematic experience. '

--- Andrew Crisell, Review of Filmosophy, European Journal of Communication, vol. 23 no. 4, December 2008.

'Frampton's engaging style makes for an exciting read . . . and his overview of the innovations of previous thinkers – Deleuze, Epstein, Artaud, Balázs, 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 viewers’ 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 viewer’s relationship with film and vice versa.'

--- Danny Graydon, Review of Filmosophy, Empire, December 2006.

'Filmosophy argues that ‘‘cinema is a world of its own . . . a flat, ordered, compressed world . . . a world that is a cousin of reality’’ which, for those of us 21st-century beings, is ‘‘the second world we live in. A second world that feeds and shapes our perception and understanding of reality.’’ Ten chapters seek to explain the act of ‘‘film-thinking’’: 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 Hadravová, 'Filmosophy: Re-Imagining the Moving Image', Vertigo, vol. 3 no. 8, Spring 2008.

--- Tereza Hadravová, '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 don’t 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 aren’t going to go away.'

--- Tony McKIbbin, Review of Filmosophy, Senses of Cinema, no. 43, April-June 2007.

'Daniel Frampton’s work Filmosophy can be considered one of the most recent analyses of Gilles Deleuze’s theories on cinema, especially in its relationship to philosophy. But Frampton’s book is more than that. It goes beyond the French philosopher in its argument that film, analogous to philosophy can be regarded not simply as an art form but as thinking itself, a system of thoughts, ideas and memories. . . . Frampton suggests that what we see is not only an image or character, but also the film’s own ‘belief’ in and about this image or character. By disclosing this filmic belief, Frampton’s concept of filmosophy tries to regenerate the connection between the audience and the film, subsequently reconnecting us with the real world. . . . Frampton’s work offers an interesting new approach in discussing cinema in a wider context. It not only provides an excellent overview of philosophical film theories, but offers a perspective for looking at the relevance of cinema for our life and thinking beyond mere escapism.'

--- Sylvie Magerstädt, Review of Filmosophy, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, vol. 5 no. 3, September 2008.

--- Martin Marzidovšek, 'Filmski Biti', Ekran: Revija Za Film in Televizijo, vol. 32 letnik XLIV, April-Maj 2007. [Slovinian]

--- Brian Price, 'Labor Thought Theory: On Frampton and Beller', New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 6 no. 1, April 2008.

--- 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 Frampton’s 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 Frampton’s 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 Frampton’s marvelously wrought genealogies is a fine refresher course in film-theoretical writing, and engaging with his ideas is a stimulating way to rethink one’s own notions of what cinema is, can be, and should be. . . . If there is truth in Frampton’s claim that for filmosophy 'film is the beginning and the future of our thought’, 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 film, thinking about film, and thinking through film, that promises to revitalise original and innovative film 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.