Film-Philosophy 17 (1):424-445 (2013)
Abstract |
The qualities of great works of art, their profundity, their insight into the human condition, are epitomised in Brakhage's films, which are, I argue, from the beginning related to and inseparable from a philosophical attitude toward existence. His films emerge out of an authentic 'existential' mode of attunement, a mind-set wherein the potential for human transcendence is framed and filmed within its intractable relationship to death, the most extreme possibility of non-existence. Brakhage not only views existence in a philosophical manner, beyond this, he engages in philosophical inquiry in a fundamental way through the medium of film. The films arise from and respond to what Karl Jaspers views as the ultimate source of philosophy, namely, 'the will to authentic communication,' which embraces 'wonder leading to knowledge, doubt leading to certainty, forsakenness leading to the self.' This amounts to the philosophical struggle to arrive at a sense of metaphysical coherence and existential familiarity, i.e., the precarious undertsanding of belonging to the world in communion with others. This essay seeks to elucidate and detail, through a series of interpretive gestures, the philosophical themes present to Brakhage's silent films by way of a reading that emerges from the phenomenological-ontological tradition in philosophy. In doing so, I hope to interpret Brakhage's filmic art as conveying a legitimate source of human understanding, which contributes to our interpreting and discoursing about the world and our lives in new and revelatory ways
|
Keywords | Heidegger Phenomenology Brakhage Experimental film Hermeneutics Levinas |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.3366/film.2013.0024 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Poetry, Language, Thought.Martin Heidegger - 1971 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 31 (1):117-123.
The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude.Martin Heidegger - 1995 - Indiana University Press.
The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values.Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - 1968 - London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values.Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - 1967 - New York: Random House.
View all 22 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
No citations found.
Similar books and articles
Existential Themes in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock.Sander H. Lee - 1985 - Philosophy Research Archives 11:225-244.
What is It Like to Be John Malkovich?Tom McClelland - 2010 - Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics 7 (2):10-25.
Changing Lenses: A Look at Bond 007 Films.Ismael N. Talili - 2013 - Iamure International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion 4 (1).
Film as Heideggerian Art? A Reassessment of Heidegger, Film, and His Connection to Terrence Malick.Shawn Loht - 2013 - Film and Philosophy 17:113-36.
Beyond Internalism and Externalism: Husserl and Sartre's Image Consciousness in Hitchcock and Buñuel.Gregory Minissale - 2010 - Film-Philosophy 14 (1):174-201.
Recent Work on Cinema as Philosophy.Paisley Nathan Livingston - 2008 - Philosophy Compass 3 (4):590-603.
Cultural Change and Nihilism in the Rollerball Films.John Marmysz - 2004 - Film and Philosophy 8:91-111.
What Do We See in Film?Robert Hopkins - 2008 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 66 (2):149–159.
Phenomenology and the Future of Film: Rethinking Subjectivity Beyond French Cinema.Jenny Chamarette - 2012 - Palgrave-Macmillan.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2013-12-13
Total views
39 ( #293,054 of 2,519,278 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #407,861 of 2,519,278 )
2013-12-13
Total views
39 ( #293,054 of 2,519,278 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #407,861 of 2,519,278 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads