Stanley's Taste

2013 ◽  
pp. 59-62
Author(s):  
Sebastião Belfort Cerqueira
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Final Scene ◽  
King Vidor

Stanley Cavell closes Contesting Tears with a chapter titled “Stella’s Taste: Reading Stella Dallas”, devoted to the 1937 movie, directed by King Vidor, which Cavell compares to the other movies he has studied in the book and finds “to be the most harrowing of the four melodramas to view again and again.” Cavell’s reading of this movie is organized against what he calls the generally “accepted view” of the film where there are two key interpretive moments: in one, Stella, the protagonist, on vacation with her teenage daughter, Laurel, at a fancy hotel, tries to impress Laurel’s new friends by dressing up and ends up making a fool of herself, in a spectacle of bad taste; Stella then finds out what people thought of her and realizes she has embarrassed Laurel, eventually deciding to drive her daughter away from her, towards her father (Stella’s now ex-husband); this takes us to the second key moment: the final scene, where Stella anonymously watches her daughter’s wedding from the sidewalk, through a window, and walks away, which is generally seen as confirming Stella’s sacrifice, representing the dissolution of motherhood — hence, of her identity.

scholarly journals "Stay on Your Path, Young Man"

2020 ◽  
pp. 65-68
Author(s):  
Paul Grimstad
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Stanley Cavell

Almost ten years ago I participated in the conference whose proceedings would become the volume Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism. Stanley sat directly in front of me and listened attentively to my talk, thrilling and scary, not to say awkward, reading out “Cavell writes...” and “Cavell says...” with the man right there. After the Q and A, someone, I don't remember who, brought me over and introduced us. Stanley shook my hand and with the other patted my shoulder and said, with a broad smile, “Stay on your path, young man.”

Two Women

Studying Ida ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Sheila Skaff
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Road ◽  
Historical Film ◽  
Final Scene ◽  
Mode Of Transportation ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Film Genres

This chapter cites the elements of several film genres contained in Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida, such as the genre of historical film or road film that frames a coming-of-age story. It explains how the traditional road film focus on the relationships within the car or other mode of transportation rather than on the story unfolding outside. It also talks about interior conflicts that take precedence over exterior ones, which are often just a means of getting the characters on the road, while external conflicts lead to the transformation of the characters rather than the other way around. The chapter reviews the traditional three-act structure of screenplays that consists of a setup, a confrontation, and a resolution. It emphasizes how Ida diverges from the three-act structure in the final scene, in which Ida's maturation and Wanda's surrender take the place of a resolution.

Gestures of Acknowledgment

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Vincent Colapietro ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Distance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Stanley Cavell

Gestures are arguably the most pervasive, primordial, and generative of signs. This partly explains why the failure or refusal to gesture in certain ways, in certain circumstances, carries more weight than would seem otherwise comprehensible. Stanley Cavell attends to not only the importance of acknowledgment but also how our failures to acknowledge others amount to nothing less than an “annihilation of the other”. What account of gestures would begin to do justice to the power of such failures to wound humans so deeply? Of course, it is possible to argue that those who are wounded by such slights are hypersensitive. But, given the weight of our experience, this goes only a very short distance toward illuminating the phenomena under consideration. Drawing upon Peirce’s theory of signs, this paper offers a sketch of gestures of acknowledgment, paying close attention to why our failures or refusals to acknowledge others are so powerful.

‘Art and Objecthood’, Philosophy

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Stephen Melville
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Arthur Danto ◽  
The One

This article explores the relations between philosophy, criticism and art history in the work of Arthur Danto, on the one hand, and Stanley Cavell and Michael Fried on the other, arguing that in the 50 years since the publication of ‘Art and Objecthood’, that essay’s terms of argument and expression have become increasingly hard to make out.

scholarly journals NIETZSCHE IR WITTGENSTEINAS: KINEMATOGRAFINĖS PARAŠTĖS

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 58-78
Author(s):  
Jūratė Baranova
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
The Other ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Philosophical Aspect ◽  
Derek Jarman ◽  
Cinematic Experience ◽  
Good And Evil

Kodėl ir kaip Friedrichas Nietzsche ir Ludwigas Wittgensteinas inspiravo Stanley Cavello ir Gilles’io Deleuze’o kino filosofijos tapsmą? Kuo artimos ir kuo skiriasi šios dvi kino filosofijos kryptys? Kuo skiriasi paties kinematografo sukurti Nietzsche’s ir Wittgensteino įvaizdžiai? Kodėl kinematografas išskirtinai domisi šiomis dviem filosofinėmis figūromis? Kadangi tarp pirmųjų dviejų klausimų ir paskutinių nėra aiškaus loginio ar priežastinio susietumo, tyrimą vadinsime kinematografinėmis paraštėmis.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: kino filosofija, Nietzsche, Wittgensteinas, Stanley Cavellas, Gilles’is Deleuze’as, Liliana Cavani, Derekas Jarmanas.NIETZSCHE AND WITTGENSTEIN: CINEMATIC MARGINSJūratė BaranovaSummaryThe article consists of two logically independent parts. The first one deals with the influence of Wittgenstein and Nietzsche on the philosophy of cinema of Stanley Cavell and Gilles Deleuze, presupposing that the first one was more influenced by the former and the other one by the latter. The article also expresses some attempts to compare the two philosophies of cinema. The author discerns one common aspect: in opposition to the analytical and phenomenological trend, they both do not question the nature of cinematic experience and the intentionalism / nonintentionalism dilemma. On the other hand, they expose two different attitudes towards the meeting of thought and emotion in cinema practice. A detailed analysis of the integration of Nietszchean ideas in Deleuze’s philosophy of cinema reveals several possibilities for philosophy and cinema to meet. Firstly, the interpreter is able to use philosophical concepts for the experimental explanation of cinema; secondly, one can see cinema and philosophy as one problemic tisssue; thirdly, it is possible to consider (reasonably or not) some philosophical insights as an intention of the cinema director. The other part of the article is devoted to the image of Nietszche and Wittgesntein in the art of cinema, created by Liliana Cavani and Derek Jarman. The analysis shows that not all movies about philosophers have something to do with philosophy itself. The author discusses the four movies created by Cavani (The Night Porter (1974), Beyond Good and Evil (1977), The Berlin Affair (1983), Francesco (1989)), and concludes that one cannot discern any philosophical aspect in the movie Beyond Good and Evil on Nietzsche’s biography. On the other hand, it doesnot mean that biographical movies have nothing to do with philosophy. Derek Jarman’s movie Wittgesntein (1993) demonstrates the possibility of a creative integration of philosophical thinking into the tissue of the experimental cinema.Keywords: philosophy of cinema, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, Gilles Deleuze, Liliana Cavani, Derek Jarman.

scholarly journals Stanley Cavell on the Magic of the Movies

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Love ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
General Thesis ◽  
Human Value ◽  
Search For Self ◽  
Theoretical Hypothesis ◽  
The World

In order to explain Cavell's account of what makes movies so magical, this article will offer a chronological survey of his major writings on film, beginning with the first edition of The World Viewed (1971), where he poses an intriguing theoretical hypothesis about what distinguishes the movies from the other major art forms. The survey will continue by considering the expanded edition of The World Viewed (1979), Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (1984), and Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman (1997), and will conclude with an analysis of Cavell's discussion of Emersonian perfectionism in Cities of Words (2005). Throughout, I show how the specific film interpretations he proposes serve as archetypal examples of crucial features of his philosophy. Cavell's general thesis, I take it, is that films can pose particularly satisfying responses to the skepticism we all harbour about our most deeply held values. In a nutshell, the movies are magical because they tell us myths that allow us to see our lives as worth living, helping to restore our faith in the wellsprings of human value: romantic love, individual autonomy, nonconformity, and the search for self-improvement.

The Ending: Dreams, Reality and Ambiguity

Inception ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 99-100
Author(s):  
David Carter
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Real ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Look Back ◽  
Final Scene ◽  
Spinning Top

This chapter evaluates the ambiguous ending of Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010). Nolan has left the audience with the challenge of the final shot of Cobb's spinning top. The image abruptly cuts to black while it is still spinning, though it does appear to wobble a little. It can be argued that the fact that it does not fall indicates that the final scene of Cobb's reunion with his children is also inside a dream. On the other hand, the fact that it wobbles suggests that it is about to fall, indicating that Cobb is indeed back in the 'real world'. Of course, the shot was designed to be deliberately ambiguous, to force the audience to look back at the film and reflect on the nature of dreams and of films and the relations of both to what one considers, often unquestioningly, to be the 'real world'.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document