ABSTRACT
Film spectatorship, as I shall consider it here, is the experience of viewing and hearing fictional feature films, together with the psychological and social contexts in which such viewing/hearing occurs. A consideration of spectatorship leads to several difficult and fascinating philosophical issues about film viewing, including discussions of various models of the hypothetical spectator; the nature of spectators and their interaction with films; models of the relationship between spectators, texts, and contexts; and how to think about differences between spectators in relation to interpretation and response.
