Read more
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 Maîtresse 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.
Edward Lamberti teaches film at King's College London and is Operations Manager at the British Board of Film Classification. He is the editor of Behind the Scenes at the BBFC: Film Classification from the Silver Screen to the Digital Age.
List of contents
List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Textual Performances in Levinas and Film; Part I: The Dardenne Brothers: An Ethics Without Rest; 1: Je Pense à 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: Maîtresse: 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
About the author
Edward Lamberti teaches film at King's College London and also works at the British Board of Film Classification. He is the editor of Behind the Scenes at the BBFC: Film Classification from the Silver Screen to the Digital Age (longlisted for the 2013 Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for Best Moving Image Book).
