A Spinozan Analysis of Film Experience

The aim of this work is to analyse film experience within the perspective of embodied cognition, namely through the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. His work was based on a vision of existence as absolute immanence, on the refusal of all dualism, and established a perfect parallelism between sensation and reason. This account involves an ecological and experiential model of subjectivity that is continuously redefined by the relational systems in which it is involved and by the ability to take an active part in them. Furthermore, Spinoza defined the human mind as an integrated and multimodal process mostly grounded on the associations of body states with complex concepts. These notions are largely compatible with George Lakoff’s semantic models, which focus on the experiential and embodied bases of cognition, and recent achievements within neurocognitive studies. With an innovative model that combines all these elements it is possible to accomplish a re-evaluation of Cognitive Film Theory (CFT) and to overcome different theoretical impasses in an innovative manner. In particular, Spinoza’s philosophy provides the opportunity to address negation and sad passions without referring exclusively to traditional notions such as catharsis, sublimation or detachment, which are traditionally put forth in CFT. With this new account, it is possible to highlight and embody the descriptive power of negative perceptions of the world and to overcome them, thus generating a renewed, constructive point of view. This new analytical approach will be tested on four case studies, films that challenge the viewer’s emotional engagement since they display situations of cosmic failure and depict controversial and damaged characters: A Serious Man (2009) by the Coen Brothers; Melancholia (2011) by Lars Von Trier; The Act of Killing (2012) by Joshua Oppenheimer; Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) by Jim Jarmusch. Spinoza’s philosophy allows us to appreciate and master sad passions and, at the same time, to show the conceptual power of film experience.