Pulling Focus

"This book questions how cinematic narratives relate to and affect ethical life. Extending Martha Nussbaum and Wayne Booth's work on moral philosophy and literature to consider cinema, Jane Stadler shows that film spectatorship can be understood as a model for ethical attention that engages the audience in an intersubjective experience, involving an affective relationship with characters and their values." "Stadler uses a phenomenological approach to analyze ethical dimensions of film extending beyond narrative content, arguing that the camera describes experience and views screen characters with an evaluative form of perception: an ethical gaze in which spectators participate. Films discussed include Dead Man Walking, Lost Highway, Batman Begins, Nil By Mouth, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."--Jacket.