Transformational Ethics of Film: Thinking the Cinemakeover in the Film-Philosophy Debate

What is 'the good' of the film experience? And how does the budding field of 'film as philosophy' answer this question? Charting new routes for film ethics, Martin P. Rossouw develops a critical account of the transformational ethics at work within the 'film as philosophy' debate. Whenever philosophers claim that films can do philosophy, they also persistently put forward edifying practical effects - potential transformations of thought and experience - as the benefit of viewing such films. Through rigorous appraisals of key arguments, and with reference to the cinema of Terrence Malick, Rossouw pieces together the idea of an inner makeover through cinema - a cinemakeover - which casts a distinct vision of film spectatorship as a practice of self-transformation.

"Recasting much of the existing debate, Martin Rossouw's […] emphasis on film's power for enacting ethical transformation, rather than theoretical insight or discovery, gives a much-needed shot in the arm to a topic whose development has stalled in recent years. […] This highly original book offers a unique and provocative contribution to the scholarship. Rossouw is a persistent questioner, often demonstrating sharp philosophical instincts."
-Shawn Loht, Philosophy in Review, Vol. 43 no. 1 (February 2023).