Overview

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 Maitresse 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.

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9781474444002

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Lamberti proposes that certain films by the Dardenne brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader perform the Levinasian ethical encounter in ways that involve the viewer in that experience and responsibility. This original intervention in the field of Levinasian ethics and film is sharply focused, compelling, and beautifully written. The book engages with debates about film as language, raises questions about film as performativity, and through close analysis shows how style creates ethical encounters with the Other. Lamberti demonstrates how film can be performative Levinasian ethics, and this makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of the ethical possibilities with which film-philosophy is concerned.--Dr Lucy Bolton, Queen Mary, University of London

Author Information

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).

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