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Phenomenology of Film

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Hermeneutics of the Film World

Abstract

The phenomenology of film focuses on the relation between filmgoer and film through the conditions and aspects of the film experience. In short, it is an approach to film as a phenomenon. According to Merleau-Ponty (1945), phenomenology is a philosophical approach that puts essences back into existence and seeks to describe rather than explain or analyse. It is concerned with the perception and understanding of the world and being-in-the-world. If the film is a phenomenological art par excellence, as Merleau-Ponty (1964) suggested, a phenomenology of film must describe how the film world is perceived by the filmgoer, as if she/he were being-in-the-film-world. This chapter develops a phenomenological analysis of film experience whose aim is to set forth a possible definition of it as re-perception of the film world. Based on this definition, the three main aspects typifying film experience are described as mediated perception, perception of a perceptual unity and available and shareable perception.

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  1. University of Turin, Torino, Italy

    Alberto Baracco

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  1. Alberto Baracco
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Baracco, A. (2017). Phenomenology of Film. In: Hermeneutics of the Film World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65400-3_2

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