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Cinematic Belief

Bazinian Cinephilia and Malick's the Tree of Life

Bibliographic Data

ID3774071
AuthorsRobert Sinnerbrink (0000-0002-3330-3038, a Department of Philosophy , Building W6A, Balaclava Rd Macquarie University , North Ryde, NSW 2109, Sydney , Australia)
Year2012
Volume17
Issue4
Pages95-117
Publication date2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAngelaki (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0969-725X • E-ISSN: 1469-2899
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0969725x.2012.747332
OpenAlexW2625485160
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited18

Given the so-called “crisis” in film theory, the digital mutations of the medium, and the renewed interest in historicism, cinephilia, and film philosophy, André Bazin's thought appears ripe for retrieval and renewal. Indeed, his role in the renaissance of philosophical film theory, I argue, is less epistemological and ontological than moral and aesthetic. It is a quest to explore the revelatory possibilities of cinematic images; not only their power to reveal reality under a multiplicity of aspects but to satisfy our desire for myth – to allow an aesthetic overcoming of the limits of consciousness and memory. The question I wish to explore is whether cinema has the power to restore our belief in reality, in the worlds that film can reveal, in the experience that it can capture and transfigure. My case study for exploring this question, the question of belief in cinema or what we could call a Bazinian cinephilia, will be Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life (2011); a film whose sublime aesthetics and unorthodox religiosity has provoked polarised critical responses, but whose remarkable ambition is to create a mythology – personal, historical, and cosmological – capable of reanimating belief in cinema and in the world

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Consciousness · Epistemology · Film theory · Literature · Movie theater · Mythology · Power (physics · Religiosity · Sublime · Theology · Cinema and Media Studies · Photography and Visual Culture · Visual Culture and Art Theory · Philosophy

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  • Bazin as a Cavellian realist

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  • Because we need him now

    Jeffrey Crouse•Film International•2007

  • What Is Cinema

    Annette Michelson•Performing Arts Journal•1995

  • M. Bazin et le temps

    Leo Carruthers•Screen•2011

  • Cinema I

    Gilles Deleuze•Cinema I•1986

  • Transparent Pictures

    Kendall L Walton•Critical Inquiry•1984

  • Photography and Representation

    Roger Scruton•Critical Inquiry•1981

Unique citing works4
Citations per year0,57
Citation span2019 - 2022 (4)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 4

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