VES 292r.

Philosophy and Film: Stanley Cavell

Instructor

Professor David Rodowick (Visual & Environmental Studies)

Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 3-4 pm or by appointment

M-06 Sever Hall (4th floor)
Phone: 617-496-6076
Email: <rodowick@fas.harvard.edu>

Course website: http://isites.harvard.edu/k17145

Meeting times. Tuesdays 1-3 pm in Sever 411

Course description

This semesters seminar is devoted to Stanley Cavells writings on film as read in the context of his larger
philosophical project. Two principle ideas unite Cavells writings on film and philosophy. These are less
separate ideas than iterations of the same ethical problem that succeed one another more or less
chronologically; namely, the philosophical confrontation with skepticism and the concept of moral
perfectionism. Keeping in mind Cavells emphasis that film is not separate from philosophy, but is, rather,
a philosophical accompaniment to our everyday lives, we will discuss all of his major works on cinema
and many of the occasional essays while examining his major conceptual contributions to the study of
photography and moving images. Cavells original contributions to the critical study of Hollywood and
European cinema, the phenomenology of film and photography, the concept of genres, the study of
gender, acting, and film stardom, and to relation between psychoanalysis and film will also be discussed.

Enrollment and registration

This course is restricted to graduate students only. There are no prerequisites.

Cross-registration. Students from other Harvard schools, M.I.T., or Tufts must cross-register through the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences (not the Graduate School of Design).

Student responsibilities

Seminar participation and discussion. Your first and most important responsibility is to keep up with
assigned readings and screenings and to think about them seriously. Each student will also be
responsible for organizing weekly discussion as part of a small group. This does not mean a formal
presentation. Rather, in each seminar there will be a group of students who will together prepare a set of
questions and topics around the weekly readings and films that they wish to discuss with the class. Each
group may also want to select clips from relevant films or videos as platforms for discussion. Groups are
expected to meet with me before the seminar.

Assessed work. During the course of the term, students will keep a philosophical journal in response to
the readings. This journal will take the form of short papers of around five pages (1500 words), which will
be collected every other week. These papers may be informal in style, but should be typewritten and
double-spaced. Consider them thought pieces where you work through and respond critically to the
concepts, problems, and arguments presented in the readings and films. The journals should also help
you prepare for the last two seminar meetings where Professor Cavell will attend the course and engage
us in discussion.
 2

Students with a special interest in Cavells work my propose, alternatively, to work on a longer research
paper or conference paper in lieu of all or part of the journal.

Screenings. VHS and/or DVD copies of recommended videos are available for individual viewing at both
Lamont and the Film Study Library on the 4th floor of Sever Hall. You may want to obtain copies of the
course videos for your own use and your own video collection. Many can be found used online. For a
complete list, see the course filmography after the Weekly Topics section.

Required texts (available at the Harvard Co-op or on reserve at Lamont)

Cavell, Stanley. The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film. Enlarged Edition.
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1979.

Cavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Cambridge:

Harvard UP, 1981.

Cavell, Stanley. Contesting Tears: The Melodrama of the Unknown Woman. Chicago: U
Chicago P, 1996.

Cavell, Stanley. Cities of Words. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2003.

Rothman, William, ed. Cavell on Film. Albany: State University of New York P, 2005.

Recommended texts (available at the Harvard Co-op or on reserve at Lamont)

Mulhall, Stephen. Stanley Cavell: Philosophys Recounting of the Ordinary. Oxford: Oxford UP,
1994.

Rothman, William and Marian Keene. Reading Cavells The World Viewed. Detroit: Wayne
State UP, 2000.

Weekly Topics and Readings

Nota bene. The films and readings listed each week are suggested as anchors or starting points for
discussion. In the course of the semester, you should endeavor to see all the films listed in the course
filmography and to read completely the required books.

Week 1 (September 18). Seminar introduction

Week 2 (September 25). What philosophy offers film; what film offers philosophy

It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, USA/Columbia, 1934), 105m

Cities of Words
Preface
Introduction: In the Place of the Classroom
The World Viewed
Foreword to the Enlarged Edition
Preface
An Autobiography of Companions
Pursuits of Happiness, 265-274
Appendix: Film in the University [1975]
Cavell on Film
The Thought of Movies [1983]
 3

Week 3 (October 2). Ontology, automatism, and medium

The World Viewed

Sights and Sounds
Photograph and Screen
Audience, Actor, and Star
Types; Cycles as Genres
Ideas of Origin
Baudelaire and the Myths of Film
The Medium and Media of Film
Automatism
Excursus: Some Modernist Painting
Exhibition and Self-Reference
Cavell on Film
The Fact of Television [1982]
The Advent of Videos [1988]

Submit first journal.

Week 4 (October 9). A moving image of skepticism

La rgle du jeu (Jean Renoir, France, 1939), 110m

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, USA/Columbia, 1936), 115m

The World Viewed

More of The World Viewed
Cavell on Film
What Becomes of Things on Film? [1978]
What Photography Calls Thinking [1985]
Cities of Words
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Week 5 (October 16). Moral perfectionism: film as the (moral) accompaniment to everyday life

The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, USA/MGM, 1940), 112m

Cities of Words
Emerson
Themes of Moral Perfectionism in Platos Republic
Cavell on Film
Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow [2000]
The Good of Film [2000]

Submit second journal.

Week 6 (October 23). An intermezzo on genre and another conversation on perfectionism

Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, USA/Warner Bros., 1942), 117m

Pursuits of Happiness
Introduction: Words for a Conversation
Contesting Tears
Introduction
 4

Week 7 (October 30). Comedies of remarriage

The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, USA/Paramount, 1941), 97m

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, USA/RKO, 1938), 102m

Pursuits of Happiness
Cons and Pros: The Lady Eve
Knowledge as Transgression: It Happened One Night
Leopards in Connecticut: Bringing Up Baby
The Importance of Importance: The Philadelphia Story

Submit third journal.

Week 8 (November 6). Comedies of remarriage, contd

Adam's Rib (George Cukor, USA/MGM, 1949), 101m

His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, USA/Columbia, 1940), 92m
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, USA/Columbia, 1937), 91m

Pursuits of Happiness
Counterfeiting Happiness: His Girl Friday
The Courting of Marriage: Adams Rib
The Same and Different: The Awful Truth

Week 9 (November 13). Melodramas of the unknown woman

Stella Dallas (King Vidor, USA/Goldwyn, 1937), 106m

Contesting Tears
Ugly Duckling, Funny Butterfly: Bette Davis and Now, Voyager
Stellas Taste: Reading Stella Dallas
Cities of Words
Stella Dallas

Submit fourth journal.

Thanksgiving

Week 10 (November 27). On psychoanalysis and cinema, philosophy and feminism

Gaslight (George Cukor, USA/MGM, 1944), 114m

Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls, USA, 1948), 86m

Contesting Tears
Naughty Orators: Negation of Voice in Gaslight
Psychoanalysis and Cinema: Moments of Letter from an Unknown Woman
Postscript: To Whom It May Concern

Submit fifth journal.

Week 11 (December 4). A conversation with Stanley Cavell

Week 12 (December 11). A conversation with Stanley Cavell, contd

Week 13 (December 18). Seminar conclusion

 5

Filmography

Blonde Venus (Joseph von Sternberg, USA/Paramount,1932), 93m

It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, USA/Columbia, 1934), 105m

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, USA/Columbia, 1936), 115m

Showboat (James Whale, USA/Universal, 1936), 113m

Stella Dallas (King Vidor, USA/Goldwyn, 1937), 106m

The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, USA/Columbia, 1937), 91m

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, USA/RKO, 1938), 102m

La rgle du jeu (Jean Renoir, France, 1939), 110m

His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, USA/Columbia, 1940), 92m

The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, USA/MGM, 1940), 112m

The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, USA/Paramount, 1941), 97m

Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, USA/Warner Bros., 1942), 117m

Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy, USA/MGM, 1942), 125m

Gaslight (George Cukor, USA/MGM, 1944), 114m

Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophuls, USA, 1948), 86m

Adam's Rib (George Cukor, USA/MGM, 1949), 101m

Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1955), 105m

The Marquise of O (Eric Rohmer, France/Germany, 1976), 102m

A Tale of Winter (Eric Rohmer, France, 1992), 114m

La captive (Chantal Akerman, France/Belgium, 2000), 118m