ABSTRACT

This book examines the theory, originally raised in Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of film, that cinema has the power to restore our trust in the world. Früchtl demonstrates that cinema does this in three main ways: by restoring our belief in the absurd, in the body and in a sceptical abstention from judging and acting. Cinema shares this ability with other arts, but what sets it apart in particular is that it evokes Modernity and its principle of subjectivity. This book further develops the idea of trust and cinema by synthesizing the philosophies of complementary thinkers such as Kant, Nancy, Agamben, Benjamin and Rancière. It concludes with examination of Cavell’s solution to the problem of scepticism and a synthesis of Kantian aesthetic theory with Cavellian pragmatism. Originally published in German under the title Vertrauen in die Welt, this English-language translation features a new introduction that situates Früchtl’s work within contemporary analytical philosophy of film. It will be of interest to scholars working in Continental aesthetics, philosophy of film, and film theory.

chapter |9 pages

Introduction

Evident Experience of Existence

chapter 1|16 pages

Gilles Deleuze and Belief in the World

chapter 2|16 pages

A Struggle Against Oneself

Cinema as Technology of the Self

chapter 3|15 pages

The Evidence of Film and the Presence of the World

Jean-Luc Nancy’s Cinematic Ontology

chapter 4|9 pages

Cinema as Human Art

Rescuing Aura in Gesture

chapter 6|15 pages

Made and Yet True

On the Aesthetics of the Presence of the Hero

chapter 7|16 pages

An Art of Gesture

Returning Narrative and Movement to Images

chapter 8|24 pages

It Is as if We Could Trust

Fiction and Aesthetics of the Political

chapter 9|20 pages

All You Need Is Love

Cavell and the Comedy of Remarriage