Philosophical Theories of Political Cinema PDF
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Philosophical Theories of Political Cinema This book utilizes philosophical tools to build up a framework for the classification, analysis and assessment of political cinema. The author first maps the category of political cinema, clarifying what it means for a film to be ‘political’, and then analyzes the relation between the value of a film as a political film and its value as art. Through philosophical enquiry, Angelo Emanuele Cioffi builds up a framework that could be of use in art-critical practice and that can help with the classification and assessment of political films. Grounded in analytic philosophy of art and cognitivist film theory, with insights from political science, political philosophy, epistemology and cognitive science, the book presents a unique analysis of the relation between films and the ‘political’. This theory is tested with detailed case studies, and the author uses specific films as examples of the applicability and explanatory power of this theoretical framework. As such, this book will be of interest not just to film studies, film theory and political philosophy scholars, but to anyone with an interest in political film, aesthetic practice and philosophy of art. Angelo Emanuele Cioffi studied Political Theory and Cultural Policies at the Universities of Pavia and Warwick and received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Art from the University of Kent. He teaches ‘English for the Arts’ at ‘LABA’ Fine Arts Academy and Literature at a high school in Brescia. Routledge Advances in Film Studies Why We Remake The Politics, Economics and Emotions of Remaking Lauren Rosewarne Hollywood Remembrance and American War Edited by Andrew Rayment and Paul Nadasdy Film Noir and Los Angeles Urban history and the Dark Imaginary Sean W. Maher Australian Genre Film Edited by Kelly McWilliam and Mark David Ryan Flashbacks in Film A Cognitive and Multimodal Analysis Adriana Gordejuela Trans New Wave Cinema Akkadia Ford Love in Contemporary Cinema Audiences and Representations of Romance Benjamín de la Pava Vélez Horror Franchise Cinema Edited by Mark McKenna and William Proctor Philosophical Theories of Political Cinema Angelo Emanuele Cioffi For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com Philosophical Theories of Political Cinema Angelo Emanuele Cioffi First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Angelo Emanuele Cioffi The right of Angelo Emanuele Cioffi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-41924-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-04622-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-81687-2 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9780367816872 Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC A mia Madre e Luigi Contents Introduction 1 1 The ‘political’ of political cinema 9 2 The purpose of political cinema 27 3 Political cinema and propaganda 45 4 Epistemic values in art 59 5 Epistemic values afforded by political films 82 6 Film as thought experiment 103 7 Imaginative and emotional engagement with political cinema 137 Conclusion 169 References 172 Filmography 181 Index 182 Introduction In this book, I develop a theory of political cinema. I use philosophical tools in order to build up a framework for the classification, analysis and assess- ment of political cinema. I define the category of political cinema, and to do that, I also tackle the problem of what it means to be ‘political’; then I ana- lyze the relation between the value of a film as a political film and its value qua art. I move from two hypotheses: (1) the purpose of a political film can differentiate it from other kinds of films, and (2) this very purpose can affect our aesthetic appraisal of political films. Hence, my aim is twofold. I aim to map the category of political cinema and to identify analytical tools that could be used to assess the value of political films. This means that, through philosophical enquiry, I aim to construct a framework that could be of use in art-critical practice and that can help with the classification and assess- ment of political films. I aim to provide a theory of political cinema because I am dissatisfied with the terminological inaccuracy and lack of systematization that characterizes the relation between art and the ‘political’. In art-critical practices and film criticism, the label ‘political’ is often used to describe ‘something’ about the artwork, but there is no clarity around the definition of the ‘political’ and the role of such a political dimension in the assessment of films, and art- works more generally, is left unclear. The problems around the interrelation between art and the ‘political’ are left unsystematized in both the analytic philosophy of art and the cognitivist tradition of film studies. In the analytic tradition of the philosophy of art, there are open debates on the normative problems about the value of art. In particular, I think of the debate on the possibility of valuing art for the purposes it may serve, for instance because it teaches a moral lesson, or of the debate on the interrelation between aes- thetic value and other values.1 Nonetheless, there is no systematic account of the possible interrelation between the political and the art’s value. Cognitivism, as an approach to film theory, has established itself in oppo- sition to what has been labeled the ‘Grand Theory’ of film studies (Allen & Smith, 1997; Bordwell & Carroll, 1996; Plantinga & Smith, 1999). This was not actually a single theory but rather an aggregate of doctrines derived from Lacanian psychoanalysis, structural semiotics, post-structuralist DOI: 10.4324/9780367816872-1
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