A Film-Philosophy of Ecology and Enlightenment

Inspired by the philosophy of Wittgenstein and his idea that the purpose of real philosophical thinking is not to discover something new, but to show in a strikingly different light what is already there, this book provides philosophical readings of a number of ‘arthouse’ and Hollywood films.

Introduction: Film as Freedom: The Meaning of Film as Philosophy 1. Implicating the Narrator, Implicating the Audience: Waltz with Bashir and Apocalypto 2. How to Represent a Past We Would Rather Forget: Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad 3. Learning from Conceptually Impossible Versions of Our World: Never Let Me Go and The Road 4. When Melancholia is Exactly What is Called For: Melancholia and Solaris 5. Gravity's arc; or Gravity: A Space Odyssey 6. The Fantasy of Absolute Safety through Absolute Power: The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Avatar Conclusion: What have we learnt?