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Peer review of "Plotinus and the Moving Image: Neoplatonism and Film Theory"

The book attempts a confrontation and comparison between cinematic work and the philosophy of Plotinus. On first glance, this seems highly improbable, since in Plotinus, the highest principle of Being and thought, the One, is ineffable (V 3, 13 ; V 3, 14 ; VI 8, 13), that is, the One cannot be expressed in thought or image. Any area which is expressive requires a duality of subject and received, reflected, and thought images. This is the case only in the realm of the hypostases which lie below or outside absolute unity with the One (V 1, 5, 4-12 ; VI 8, 13, 1-4 ; Rist, 1967: 27 ; V 1, 5, 4-12 ; VI 8, 13, 1-4 ; Rist, 1967: 27). Paradoxically, film presents a unique and unusual medium for a rapprochement of our modern consciousness with the thought of this mystic and philosopher of Late Antiquity. Thus, the book represents a landmark contribution both to the aesthetics of film and to scholarly research on the philosophy of Plotinus. Plotinus (204/5-270 C.E.) the founder of Neoplatonism provides in this volume the basis for a new approach to film theory. Neoplatonism has had relatively little influence on film studies, film theory and the philosophy of film in the past. Plato’s valuation of the conceptual and over the image seems to be at odds with philosophy of film. Nevertheless, Neoplatonic philosophy is of interest to film philosophers for a variety of reasons reasons. First of all, Plotinus’ understanding of time, as the life of the soul, standing in opposition to eternity life of the intellect, provides a point of departure for understanding the relationship between moving image and the ideas embodied in film. The descent of soul into the body unfolds in stages that not temporally segregated but ontologically, an idea that can be fruitful for the development of film studies. Plotinus’ grasp of the “intelligible”, on the other hand, which is not accessible through sense perception or by mere abstraction or analysis but through contemplation returns us to a kind of apprehension which is like vision. The first procession from the one is an “indefinite sight”, something like intelligible matter, becomes “definitive” in Intellect or Nous.The intelligible world of the Forms becomes an animated image in the “mirror” of matter through the soul (III 6, 7-13 ; IV, 3, 12 ; V 1, 9). As “amphibian”the soul lives a double life on the boundary between the higher world of Nous and the lower realm of the senses. Hence For Plotinus, bodies are projections of the soul and the body is animated by the soul (IV 3, 22-23 ; VI 7, 7). The emphasis of the present volume appears to be on “Contemplative Cinema, ” also called “Slow Cinema, ” which has “become a well-established movement” and in Botz-Bornstein’s view “makes a fresh interpretation of Plotinus’ philosophy of contemplation relevant in the context of film studies.” (8)

film studies ; Ancient Philosophy ; Slow Cinema ; Gilles Deleuze ; Plotinus ; Henri Bergson ; Neoplatonism ; philosophy of film, image, time, eternity, moving, contemplative, visual

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