Performing Ethics Through Film Style
Levinas with the Dardenne Brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader
Published on 31. August 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-4744-4401-9 (ISBN)
Description
Emmanuel Levinas's ethical philosophy has had a significant influence on film theory in recent years. Proposing a relationship between Levinasian ethics and film style, and bringing it into a productive dialogue with theories of performativity, this book explores this influence through three directorial bodies of work: those of the Dardenne Brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader.
Discussing a range of films - including the Dardennes' Le Fils and The Kid with a Bike, Schroeder's Maitresse and Reversal of Fortune and Schrader's American Gigolo and The Comfort of Strangers - Edward Lamberti demonstrates how film styles can perform a Levinasian ethics.
Discussing a range of films - including the Dardennes' Le Fils and The Kid with a Bike, Schroeder's Maitresse and Reversal of Fortune and Schrader's American Gigolo and The Comfort of Strangers - Edward Lamberti demonstrates how film styles can perform a Levinasian ethics.
Reviews / Votes
Lamberti proposes that certain films by the Dardenne brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader perform the Levinasian ethical encounter in ways that involve the viewer in that experience and responsibility. This original intervention in the field of Levinasian ethics and film is sharply focused, compelling, and beautifully written. The book engages with debates about film as language, raises questions about film as performativity, and through close analysis shows how style creates ethical encounters with the Other. ?Lamberti demonstrates how film can be performative Levinasian ethics, and this makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of the ethical possibilities with which film-philosophy is concerned. -- Dr Lucy Bolton, Queen Mary, University of LondonMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
67 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
418 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-4401-9 (9781474444019)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Edward Lamberti
Performing Ethics Through Film Style
Levinas with the Dardenne Brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader
E-Book
11/2019
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€26.49
Available for download
Person
Edward Lamberti has a PhD in Film Studies from King's College London and he works at the BBFC. He is the editor of Behind the Scenes at the BBFC: Film Classification from the Silver Screen to the Digital Age(2012).
Content
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Textual Performances in Levinas and Film
Part I: The Dardenne Brothers: An Ethics Without Rest
1. Je Pense a Vous and La Promesse: From Describing to Performing
2. Levinasian Responsibility in Le Fils
3. The Kid with a Bike and the Reframing of Ethics
Part II: Barbet Schroeder: Devoted to the Other
4. Maitresse: Direction Without Domination
5. The Ethical and the Juridical in Reversal of Fortune and Terror's Advocate
6. Our Lady of the Assassins and Levinas's Ethics as First Philosophy
Part III: Paul Schrader: An Unexpected Ethics
7. American Gigolo and the Ethics of Falling in Love
8. Levinasian Limits of Performativity in Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
9. Passivity and Responsibility in The Comfort of Strangers, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and Adam Resurrected
Conclusion: Levinasian Films in the World
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Textual Performances in Levinas and Film
Part I: The Dardenne Brothers: An Ethics Without Rest
1. Je Pense a Vous and La Promesse: From Describing to Performing
2. Levinasian Responsibility in Le Fils
3. The Kid with a Bike and the Reframing of Ethics
Part II: Barbet Schroeder: Devoted to the Other
4. Maitresse: Direction Without Domination
5. The Ethical and the Juridical in Reversal of Fortune and Terror's Advocate
6. Our Lady of the Assassins and Levinas's Ethics as First Philosophy
Part III: Paul Schrader: An Unexpected Ethics
7. American Gigolo and the Ethics of Falling in Love
8. Levinasian Limits of Performativity in Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
9. Passivity and Responsibility in The Comfort of Strangers, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist and Adam Resurrected
Conclusion: Levinasian Films in the World
Notes
Bibliography
Index