/film/ - FILM

It seems like philosophy and narrative are a little at odds in film. There's not always time to put heavy emphasis on both, at least not to the same degree as literature.

My first thought was to suggest directors Jacques Rivette and Raoul Ruiz. Both were quite intelligent and experimented with the form of film itself. They weren't so interested in important life lessons though, so maybe that's not quite what you wanted.

I think documentary is probably the most potent, because it captures actually "real" characters. the filmmaker may or may not inject their own take on what is captured, but always you (with a good doc), you are left with a lot to think about that can be approached from a variety of ways. Abbas Kiarostami (sp?) comes to mind, great documentarian. I also like Werner Herzog's documentaries a lot, he definitely injects a lot of himself and his own thoughts into them though

like above poster says, it is difficult to find a film that will go into such depth with a character or an idea that you would find in literature. to me, film is all about observation and extrapolating from that; film making is about providing a certain perspective to observe from I guess. Terrence Malick's films I think are some of the best, he really lays things out beautifully and there is so much to consider in the way he shoots things, just deeply ponderous on the human condition. I think you just need to approach film in a different way, maybe

>>5450

>>5452

Thank you both for the answers. I find it intriguing to watch more documentaries, but I'm searching for fiction.

I have a hard time expressing what I'm after. I understand that film is more of a observing practice than reading, but that doesn't exclude character studies and philosophy, or does it? My idea is that some films put things in perspective and therefore learn life lessons, like "A Short Film About Killing".

I'll look into Ruin and Rivette!

>>5455

One of the things I enjoy about film is often the lack of overbearing narrative, that is so common in literature and elsewhere. It's not uncommon to have certain documentaries that don't really have any clear message, but are more or less an aesthetic exploration of the subject.

In terms of Malick, there are some pretty dope explorations of morality/conformance in Badlands, and Thin Red Line is an excellent 'philisophical' exploration of the nature of war.

I agree that Herzog and Kiarostami are great places to start at. Though in general, I think you can find films that have excellent explorations of the respective subject matter regardless of the 'genre' of the film. I could maybe recommend more if you gave specific examples of film that fit the criteria you are looking for that you have already watched.

One that comes to mind, given your partiality towards DFW, is Un homme qui dort, which is an exploration of depression and angst manifested in a Parisian student. It's one of my favorite films!

Theres a bunch of films that you can extract phiolosophical ideas/concepts from them. But since I think you mean like more obvious ones, maybe A torinoi lo(2001,tarr) ?

>>5450

narrattive are a little at odds in film

this basically, since film is a visual media you dont need an allmighty voice telling you everything that happensand why it happens and why does it matter.

>>5510

> 'philisophical' exploration of the nature of war.

Could Judgment at Nuremberg(61) be consider as such? it has a lot of monologues about the ethics of the war

>>5448

Watch Persona, Face of Another and Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors