Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the relationship between cinema and ethics from a philosophical perspective, finding an intrinsic connection between film spectatorship and the possibility of openness to modes of alterity. It also deals with a historical examination of conceptions of cinematic experience. The book sets out the predominant view in critical discourse of cinema as a manipulative apparatus, controlling the unaware cinemagoer. It discusses how the experience of watching films can offer the viewer different modes of engagement with characters through diverse cinematic points of view and how this diversity of points of view creates the context in which the ethical space of cinema is realized. The book looks at a unique image of humanity characteristic of cinema: the close-up of the human face.