ABSTRACT
Baruch Spinoza’s Iimitations of Affects Theory shares similar stances with modern neurocognitive studies, and contributes to a radically innovative analysis of sad passions and conflicts in film experience. This chapter demonstrates how, through a Spinozian-experiential analysis of film experience, it is possible to overcome some of the theoretical impasses of current film studies. It highlights how a radically empirical approach and a top-down perspective can be reframed by an experiential paradigm that combines the affective and intellectual elements of cognition. The chapter proposes a new reading of empathy and emotional engagement, that innovates the study of sad passions in audiovisual media. It shows the capacity of film to communicate complex concepts through conceptual associations, kinaesthetic images, and interactive situations, and, the possibility to understand cinema as philosophical-ethical medium that operates through blocs of sensations. With this Spinozian-experiential perspective, the chapter describes film experience as a problematic event, which asks for a creative participation and violates the limits of one's understanding.
