After the moving image was neglected by much of twentieth- century philosophy, philosophy of film has emerged in recent decades as an independent field of inquiry. Since the decline of so- called Grand Theory (Bordwell and Carroll 1996), film theory has diversified in different directions, from historicism and media theory to phenomenology and cognitivist approaches. One of the most interesting developments – and the subject of this entry – is the philosophical turn in film theory and the rise of what is described as ‘film and philosophy’. The latter comprises a number of strands of philosophical film theory, encompassing both philosophy of film (often indebted to analytic aesthetics and/ or cognitivist approaches) and film- philosophy (often aligned with a range of Continental and post- Continental thinkers, as well as phenomenological and critical theory approaches). In what follows, I explore key elements of the film and philosophy relationship, focusing on the work of Deleuze and Cavell, examining the idea of ‘film as philosophy’, and some concluding reflections on the possibilities of cinematic thinking.

Image, Movement, Time: Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze published the first of his two books on film and philosophy in 1983, Cinema 1: The Movement- Image (trans. 1986), followed by the ‘sequel’ in 1985, Cinema 2: The Time- Image (trans. 1989). In their ambitious attempt to conceptualize the ‘essential’ concepts of cinema, Deleuze seeks to respond to problems shared by both film and philosophy. His project begins with a critical commentary on Henri Bergson's metaphysics of movement, which we may summarize in the three theses mentioned below:

Movement is Distinct from the Space Covered

Bergson's first thesis, according to Deleuze, holds that movement as such is qualitative, and so cannot be divided up without changing qualitatively (1986, 1). Space, on the other hand, is quantitative and so can be divided indefinitely. Space is homogeneous, movement heterogeneous (Deleuze 1986, 1). This implies that movement cannot be recomposed out of individual positions in space or instants in time; static sections (positions and instants) can only be synthesized in succession to create an ‘illusory’ movement.