Explores the encounter between Emmanuel Levinas' ethical thought and aesthetic realisms of the body Presents an interdisciplinary approach that brings together film studies, philosophies of ethics, cultural studies and critical theory to contribute to the fields of film-philosophy and cinematic thinking Expands the existing enquiries into the consequences of Emmanuel Levinas' philosophy for aesthetics and draws out a new encounter between his ethical thought and film Makes a case for the hospitality of the cinematic image by investigating its unique visual being as a gift and proposes an affirmative account of the ethics of the cinematograph through discussions of cinematic realism The Eye of the Cinematograph investigates the ethical and aesthetic implications of the automatic formation of the body's image by the camera. Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas' thought, Manafi asks what happens when the other makes their body available to the gaze of the camera to be automatically recorded, and this giving of the body is preserved within the image, juxtaposed with other images to allude to a story that might otherwise remain untold. To locate the ethical at this intersection of the body and the aesthetic, this book articulates an ethical account of a diverse range of film theories to demonstrate alternative encounters with the other that realisms of the body offer. Manafi discusses works by Chantal Akerman, Bruno Dumont, Pedro Costa, Gus Van Sant, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Abbas Kiarostami, Amir Naderi, Jafar Panahi, Carlos Reygadas and Andy Warhol to make a case for the ethics and aesthetics of incompleteness and performative failure.
About the AuthorKeyvan Manafi completed his PhD in film and philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, where he currently works as an Arts academic programs advisor.
Reviews"Proposing a novel marriage between Bazinian realism and Levinasian philosophy, Keyvan Manafi's The Eye of the Cinematograph compellingly asks us to look closely at the filmed body in all its promises and indeterminacies. This is an elegantly written book that sheds new light on the confluences between film ethics, nonprofessional acting and durational cinema." -Tiago de Luca, University of Warwick
Book InformationISBN 9781399507240
Author Keyvan ManafiFormat Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Edinburgh University PressPublisher Edinburgh University Press