Metaphysics and the Moving Image

Introduction: The Death of God, the Birth of Film, and the New Metaphysics Chapter One Image Breakthrough: Disclosure and Derailment in Painting, Photography, and FilmI. Art in the Wake of MetaphysicsII. The Myth of the Lumi�re Leaf Chapter Two The Evolution of the Concept of "World" from Philosophy to FilmI. The World in the Palm of PhilosophyII. Film in the World's Palm, or the World in its Own ImageIII. Metaphysical Figures in Days of HeavenChapter Three Paradise Exposed: Psychic Automatism in FilmPrimer: "While the will is off its watch"I. The Mechanical GardenII. Heinrich von Kleist's Marionette TheaterIII. Robert Bresson's Filmic Models Chapter Four Nature, Whose Death Shines a Light: Exteriority and Overexposure in The Thin Red LineI. IntroductionII. Dramaturgy of NatureIII. A Cinematic SublimeIV. Metaphysics of the Front Chapter Five "Mother, I am Dumb ..." The Reevaluation of Friedrich Nietzsche in The Turin Horse

Mowchun has reawakened my love of philosophy and made me freshly mindful of the high calling of cinema as an art form. He brings the most anti-metaphysical positions and arguments into alignment with his own metaphysical reclamation scheme, demonstrating how inextinguishable metaphysical shadows and hankerings are, and how profitable it is to work against the grain of the thinkers he is exploring, without ever being dismissive of, or out of touch with their own aspirations.--George Toles, University of Manitoba, Trevor Mowchun's extraordinary new book shines new light on our understanding of things far more basic than film, including experience, consciousness, perception, and reality. An extremely stylish and engaging author, Mowchun takes us on a tour of his own deepest concerns and passions, compels us to share them, and tells us something new about ourselves and the cinematic experiences we have had our whole lives, and which we now see we have failed to examine to their very depths.--Justin E.H. Smith, University of Paris

Trevor Mowchun is Assistant Professor and Director of Film and Media Studies at University of Florida. His scholarly essays and criticism have appeared in Film International, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Cineaction, Evental Aesthetics, and Senses of Cinema. He also co-wrote and directed World to Come, an experimental drama on the spiritual disenchantment that plagues a religious community in the wake of tragedy.