Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

Film fulfils many functions in contemporary society. They can represent our ideas on morality, politics, ethics, friendship, and what we believe to be a worthwhile life. But they can also be iconoclastic and irreverent of the status quo. This course will argue that film has a ‘mythological’ structure; that it creates narratives out of our beliefs about the world and our place in it. Film can also represent our collective hopes and future aspirations, as well as cathartically playing out our worst fears.

This ten-week course will draw on both classic cinema and contemporary films; drama, science fiction, romances and comedy. We will also consider the technical ways in which film presents a ‘reality’ to us as a coherent illusion, through the manipulation of time, space, sound and light.

Aims

This course aims to:

• engage you in an enjoyable learning experience through the discussion of films and the stories told
• encourage you to think about the structure of the films you see, and the way film can influence social, ethical and political ideas
• provide new insights into the way films produces these effects, either consciously or subliminally.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• recognise the different types of myths in film and the way they may influence social ideas
• make the connection between the ideological elements in social history and the transfer of those ideologies to film
• discuss some of the technical mechanisms used in film to achieve the ‘reality’ effect
• analyse the connection between the narrative elements of film and the various emotional triggers connected with different narratives.

Content

Introduction to the philosophy of film

We will consider a range of film theorists, philosophers, and sociologists on the issue of film and compare and contrast these views.

Mythology

Questions on this topic will be: What are ‘mythologies’ and how do they function; How is film both alike and different from past mythologies; And why do humans enjoy telling each other stories. A further philosophical question arises out of this discussion which is: Does ‘lived reality’ become more ‘real’ to us when we mirror it backwardly through narrative art; does art construct social reality, or social reality construct art?

Construction of social identity

This week we will look at character types. Some of these types are: the outsider and the insider; the hero and the villain; the sexually attractive and the sexually inept; the good friend and the deceiver.

Fantasy and the political

Throughout history a time-honoured way of either critiquing your own society or exploring alternative social and political scenarios has been to construct other worlds. There are broadly three forms of this: The mythical past world; the future utopia or dystopia; the parallel fantasy world in the ordinary world.

Image and mind

We will discuss a number of theorists in psychology who have attempted to understand the way film works on the mind. One interesting issue here is whether the mind processes the moving image differently to a static image as in a painting.

Space and time

This week we will look at the way film manipulates space to create the illusion of depth, angle, perspective and experiential ‘thickness’. We will look at a range of films which play with space in novel ways.

Time and constructed reality

We will consider: the internal structure of events within the film itself; the observers experience of the time of the film which is a phenomenological issue; and the relation of time frames in the film to the external reality which it represents.

Comedy

Why do humans find certain situations funny, and how individual and/or culturally specific is comedy? We will look at different types of comedy from the light-hearted to the dark and satirical.

Intended audience

Anyone with a general interest in philosophy.

Prerequisites

None

Delivery style

Lecture/seminar

Materials

Course handouts and readings are distributed electronically using Dropbox.