The doctrine of medium specificity holds that a medium can do something that other media cannot, ... more The doctrine of medium specificity holds that a medium can do something that other media cannot, or that they cannot do as well, and it has a long history in the theory, criticism, and practice of the arts. The first film theorists, who today are often referred to as classical film theorists, embraced medium specificity in their attempt to demonstrate that film is a legitimate art as great as, or perhaps greater than, the other arts. They believed that, in order for cinema to be accepted as a genuine art, they had to show that cinema can do certain things better than the other arts or that the other arts couldn’t do at all. Thus they set about identifying specific features of film that putatively distinguished it as a medium from other media. Today, medium specificity is a controversial doctrine, and has been subjected to powerful, sustained criticism by Noël Carroll, who has targeted its use in classical film theory. Yet, medium specificity has recently enjoyed a resurgence in film...
Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the nat... more Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the natural sciences in the study of film and art, and they reach diametrically opposed conclusions. Rodowick argues that natural-scientific explanations have little or no role to play in the study of film and art as “cultural practices,” while Smith advocates a “naturalized aesthetics of film,” which he describes as “an approach that … treats [film] as a phenomenon which is likely to be illuminated by various types of scientific as well as traditional humanistic research.” In this paper, I argue that, while both views contain important insights, they are ultimately mistaken. Rodowick overlooks the important role the natural sciences can play in explaining the perceptual, cognitive, affective, and bodily capacities that shape and constrain our engagement with art as well as the properties of artworks that elicit and inform this engagement. Nevertheless, this does not mean, I maintain, that aest...
Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the na... more Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the natural sciences in the study of film and art, and they reach diametrically opposed conclusions. Rodowick argues that natural scientific explanations have little or no role to play in the study of film and art as "cultural practices," while Smith advocates a "naturalized aesthetics of film," which he describes as "an approach that . . . treats [film] as a phenomenon which is likely to be illuminated by various types of scientific as well as traditional humanistic research." In this paper, I argue that, while both views contain important insights, they are ultimately mistaken. Rodowick overlooks the important role the natural sciences can play in explaining the perceptual, cognitive, affective and bodily capacities that shape and constrain our engagement with art as well as the properties of artworks that elicit and inform this engagement. Nevertheless, this does not mean, I maintain, that aesthetics should be naturalized, as Smith believes, given that the types of explanations standardly proffered in film studies and other humanistic disciplines can be autonomous from those of the natural sciences in the sense of being explanatorily self-sufficient.
<p>The author reconsiders the commonly held notion that Jacques Tati's <italic>Mo... more <p>The author reconsiders the commonly held notion that Jacques Tati's <italic>Mon Oncle</italic> (1958) adumbrates a negative 'critique' of modern suburbia as a space of alienation. The functions given to architectural forms or elements of landscaping on the one hand can be distinguished from the comic uses of these forms onscreen on the other, for instance to satirise bourgeois habits or to reaffirm the prerogatives of childlike creative engagement with the built environment. The director strikes a balance between the mockery of conspicuous consumption and the enchantment of an unruly, unpredictable object world. Attention is paid the narrative of post-war French suburban development, the thunderous reception of <italic>Mon Oncle</italic>, and the peculiar approach that Tati and chief decorator Jacques Lagrange took to set design and the Arpel villa in particular, which overtly parodies interwar French high modernism. The villa's stark opposition to the eponymous character's ramshackle rooming house in suburban St. Maur allows Tati to elicit a specific audience response to shared values of spontaneity and disorder that modernizing tendencies in post-war France were in the process of destroying.</p>
The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures, 2019
The robust connections between philosophy and avant-garde cinema are investigated, and four stron... more The robust connections between philosophy and avant-garde cinema are investigated, and four strong senses in which avant-garde films can be “philosophical” are clarified: as illustrating philosophy, as originating philosophy, as enacting philosophy, and as occasioning philosophical reflection. While avant-garde cinema may only rarely, if ever, be able to create innovative philosophy, it excels at producing rich, philosophically informed perceptual experiences for viewers. Moreover, unlike works of verbal philosophy, which are evaluated in terms of their truth value and whose significance is primarily epistemic, avant-garde films like other avant-garde artworks are admired mainly for their artistic inventions, and the chapter highlights through a range of examples how avant-garde filmmakers have employed imaginative and often novel techniques to communicate philosophical meaning and generate philosophical ideas.
In his article “Notes on the Sight Gag” from 1991, the philosopher Noël Carroll proposed a taxono... more In his article “Notes on the Sight Gag” from 1991, the philosopher Noël Carroll proposed a taxonomy of sight gags that recur throughout the genre of comedian comedy in cinema. This article revisits and augments Carroll’s taxonomy by analyzing the sight gags found in the films of Jacques Tati (1907-1982). Tati worked in a very different context than that of the silent Hollywood filmmakers from whose comic films Carroll largely derives his categories. He began making films in the sound era, and five of his six feature films were made in color. As a French filmmaker, he also sought to adapt the genre of comedian comedy in cinema to his culturally specific concerns. This article shows that he drew on at least three of the types of sight gag identified by Carroll. But he modified some of them and innovated several other kinds.
While many of the ideas and arguments in David Bordwell's seminal Narration in the Fiction Fi... more While many of the ideas and arguments in David Bordwell's seminal Narration in the Fiction Film (1985) have rightly gained widespread currency, Bordwell's concept of "parametric narration," outlined in chapter 12 of the book, has not received the attention it deserves. According to Bordwell, whereas in other modes of narration style serves the purpose of enabling the viewer to construct the story (fabula) from the plot (syuzhet), in parametric narration "the film's stylistic system creates patterns distinct from the demands of the syuzhet system ." Stylistic patterns are as important as, and exist independently of, narration, and are "present for" their "own sake" and not because they serve a narrational purpose. In this paper, I will argue that there are several problems with Bordwell's theory of parametric narration. First, given that in parametric narration, stylistic patterns serve no narrational purpose, it is not clear wh...
REVIEW DR. TUBE AND MR. SNOW I think we tend to talk interchangeably, and not very usefully, abou... more REVIEW DR. TUBE AND MR. SNOW I think we tend to talk interchangeably, and not very usefully, about film and cinema, as if they were the same thing. Cinema is a social institution, while film is a medium. And I think while the medium may change, the institution will be just fine. I don't see how the institution of cinema-which involves the social act of looking at moving images, and talking about them-is going to be threatened by new technology. Of course, it will be affected by it in terms of how films are made, distributed, and exhibited, but it won't be destroyed by it. I can quite easily imagine film as a medium disappearing quietly in the next ten years with scarcely a blip in terms of the practices of cinema. -Anthony McCall1 Given its overt use of computer-generated effects as well as what critics perceive to be its numerous allusions to its maker's previous films, it is tempting to view *Corpus Callosum (2002) as Michael Snow's simultaneous farewell to the cin...
The doctrine of medium specificity holds that a medium can do something that other media cannot, ... more The doctrine of medium specificity holds that a medium can do something that other media cannot, or that they cannot do as well, and it has a long history in the theory, criticism, and practice of the arts. The first film theorists, who today are often referred to as classical film theorists, embraced medium specificity in their attempt to demonstrate that film is a legitimate art as great as, or perhaps greater than, the other arts. They believed that, in order for cinema to be accepted as a genuine art, they had to show that cinema can do certain things better than the other arts or that the other arts couldn’t do at all. Thus they set about identifying specific features of film that putatively distinguished it as a medium from other media. Today, medium specificity is a controversial doctrine, and has been subjected to powerful, sustained criticism by Noël Carroll, who has targeted its use in classical film theory. Yet, medium specificity has recently enjoyed a resurgence in film...
Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the nat... more Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the natural sciences in the study of film and art, and they reach diametrically opposed conclusions. Rodowick argues that natural-scientific explanations have little or no role to play in the study of film and art as “cultural practices,” while Smith advocates a “naturalized aesthetics of film,” which he describes as “an approach that … treats [film] as a phenomenon which is likely to be illuminated by various types of scientific as well as traditional humanistic research.” In this paper, I argue that, while both views contain important insights, they are ultimately mistaken. Rodowick overlooks the important role the natural sciences can play in explaining the perceptual, cognitive, affective, and bodily capacities that shape and constrain our engagement with art as well as the properties of artworks that elicit and inform this engagement. Nevertheless, this does not mean, I maintain, that aest...
Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the na... more Two film theorists, D. N. Rodowick and Murray Smith, have recently addressed the place of the natural sciences in the study of film and art, and they reach diametrically opposed conclusions. Rodowick argues that natural scientific explanations have little or no role to play in the study of film and art as "cultural practices," while Smith advocates a "naturalized aesthetics of film," which he describes as "an approach that . . . treats [film] as a phenomenon which is likely to be illuminated by various types of scientific as well as traditional humanistic research." In this paper, I argue that, while both views contain important insights, they are ultimately mistaken. Rodowick overlooks the important role the natural sciences can play in explaining the perceptual, cognitive, affective and bodily capacities that shape and constrain our engagement with art as well as the properties of artworks that elicit and inform this engagement. Nevertheless, this does not mean, I maintain, that aesthetics should be naturalized, as Smith believes, given that the types of explanations standardly proffered in film studies and other humanistic disciplines can be autonomous from those of the natural sciences in the sense of being explanatorily self-sufficient.
<p>The author reconsiders the commonly held notion that Jacques Tati's <italic>Mo... more <p>The author reconsiders the commonly held notion that Jacques Tati's <italic>Mon Oncle</italic> (1958) adumbrates a negative 'critique' of modern suburbia as a space of alienation. The functions given to architectural forms or elements of landscaping on the one hand can be distinguished from the comic uses of these forms onscreen on the other, for instance to satirise bourgeois habits or to reaffirm the prerogatives of childlike creative engagement with the built environment. The director strikes a balance between the mockery of conspicuous consumption and the enchantment of an unruly, unpredictable object world. Attention is paid the narrative of post-war French suburban development, the thunderous reception of <italic>Mon Oncle</italic>, and the peculiar approach that Tati and chief decorator Jacques Lagrange took to set design and the Arpel villa in particular, which overtly parodies interwar French high modernism. The villa's stark opposition to the eponymous character's ramshackle rooming house in suburban St. Maur allows Tati to elicit a specific audience response to shared values of spontaneity and disorder that modernizing tendencies in post-war France were in the process of destroying.</p>
The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures, 2019
The robust connections between philosophy and avant-garde cinema are investigated, and four stron... more The robust connections between philosophy and avant-garde cinema are investigated, and four strong senses in which avant-garde films can be “philosophical” are clarified: as illustrating philosophy, as originating philosophy, as enacting philosophy, and as occasioning philosophical reflection. While avant-garde cinema may only rarely, if ever, be able to create innovative philosophy, it excels at producing rich, philosophically informed perceptual experiences for viewers. Moreover, unlike works of verbal philosophy, which are evaluated in terms of their truth value and whose significance is primarily epistemic, avant-garde films like other avant-garde artworks are admired mainly for their artistic inventions, and the chapter highlights through a range of examples how avant-garde filmmakers have employed imaginative and often novel techniques to communicate philosophical meaning and generate philosophical ideas.
In his article “Notes on the Sight Gag” from 1991, the philosopher Noël Carroll proposed a taxono... more In his article “Notes on the Sight Gag” from 1991, the philosopher Noël Carroll proposed a taxonomy of sight gags that recur throughout the genre of comedian comedy in cinema. This article revisits and augments Carroll’s taxonomy by analyzing the sight gags found in the films of Jacques Tati (1907-1982). Tati worked in a very different context than that of the silent Hollywood filmmakers from whose comic films Carroll largely derives his categories. He began making films in the sound era, and five of his six feature films were made in color. As a French filmmaker, he also sought to adapt the genre of comedian comedy in cinema to his culturally specific concerns. This article shows that he drew on at least three of the types of sight gag identified by Carroll. But he modified some of them and innovated several other kinds.
While many of the ideas and arguments in David Bordwell's seminal Narration in the Fiction Fi... more While many of the ideas and arguments in David Bordwell's seminal Narration in the Fiction Film (1985) have rightly gained widespread currency, Bordwell's concept of "parametric narration," outlined in chapter 12 of the book, has not received the attention it deserves. According to Bordwell, whereas in other modes of narration style serves the purpose of enabling the viewer to construct the story (fabula) from the plot (syuzhet), in parametric narration "the film's stylistic system creates patterns distinct from the demands of the syuzhet system ." Stylistic patterns are as important as, and exist independently of, narration, and are "present for" their "own sake" and not because they serve a narrational purpose. In this paper, I will argue that there are several problems with Bordwell's theory of parametric narration. First, given that in parametric narration, stylistic patterns serve no narrational purpose, it is not clear wh...
REVIEW DR. TUBE AND MR. SNOW I think we tend to talk interchangeably, and not very usefully, abou... more REVIEW DR. TUBE AND MR. SNOW I think we tend to talk interchangeably, and not very usefully, about film and cinema, as if they were the same thing. Cinema is a social institution, while film is a medium. And I think while the medium may change, the institution will be just fine. I don't see how the institution of cinema-which involves the social act of looking at moving images, and talking about them-is going to be threatened by new technology. Of course, it will be affected by it in terms of how films are made, distributed, and exhibited, but it won't be destroyed by it. I can quite easily imagine film as a medium disappearing quietly in the next ten years with scarcely a blip in terms of the practices of cinema. -Anthony McCall1 Given its overt use of computer-generated effects as well as what critics perceive to be its numerous allusions to its maker's previous films, it is tempting to view *Corpus Callosum (2002) as Michael Snow's simultaneous farewell to the cin...
Play Time: Jacques Tati and Comedic Modernism, 2019
Jacques Tati is widely regarded as one of the greatest postwar European filmmakers. He made innov... more Jacques Tati is widely regarded as one of the greatest postwar European filmmakers. He made innovative and challenging comedies while achieving international box office success and attaining a devoted following. In Play Time, Malcolm Turvey examines Tati’s unique comedic style and evaluates its significance for the history of film and modernism.
Turvey argues that Tati captured elite and general audiences alike by combining a modernist aesthetic with slapstick routines, gag structures, and other established traditions of mainstream film comedy. Considering films such as Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Play Time (1967), and Trafic (1971), Turvey shows how Tati drew on the rich legacy of comic silent film while modernizing its conventions in order to encourage his viewers to adopt a playful attitude toward the modern world. Turvey also analyzes Tati’s sardonic view of the bourgeoisie and his complex and multifaceted satire of modern life. Tati's singular and enduring achievement, Turvey concludes, was to translate the democratic ideals of the postwar avant-garde into mainstream film comedy, crafting a genuinely popular modernism. Richly illustrated with images from the director’s films, Play Time offers an illuminating and original understanding of Tati’s work.
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Papers by Malcolm Turvey
In this paper, I argue that, while both views contain important insights, they are ultimately mistaken. Rodowick overlooks the important role the natural sciences can play in explaining the perceptual, cognitive, affective and bodily capacities that shape and constrain our engagement with art as well as the properties of artworks that elicit and inform this engagement. Nevertheless, this does not mean, I maintain, that aesthetics should be naturalized, as Smith believes, given that the types of explanations standardly proffered in film studies and other humanistic disciplines can be autonomous from those of the natural sciences in the sense of being explanatorily self-sufficient.
In this paper, I argue that, while both views contain important insights, they are ultimately mistaken. Rodowick overlooks the important role the natural sciences can play in explaining the perceptual, cognitive, affective and bodily capacities that shape and constrain our engagement with art as well as the properties of artworks that elicit and inform this engagement. Nevertheless, this does not mean, I maintain, that aesthetics should be naturalized, as Smith believes, given that the types of explanations standardly proffered in film studies and other humanistic disciplines can be autonomous from those of the natural sciences in the sense of being explanatorily self-sufficient.
Turvey argues that Tati captured elite and general audiences alike by combining a modernist aesthetic with slapstick routines, gag structures, and other established traditions of mainstream film comedy. Considering films such as Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Play Time (1967), and Trafic (1971), Turvey shows how Tati drew on the rich legacy of comic silent film while modernizing its conventions in order to encourage his viewers to adopt a playful attitude toward the modern world. Turvey also analyzes Tati’s sardonic view of the bourgeoisie and his complex and multifaceted satire of modern life. Tati's singular and enduring achievement, Turvey concludes, was to translate the democratic ideals of the postwar avant-garde into mainstream film comedy, crafting a genuinely popular modernism. Richly illustrated with images from the director’s films, Play Time offers an illuminating and original understanding of Tati’s work.