Filmosophy

This chapter begins with some key examples of DeLillo’s own film criticism: ‘That Day in Rome’ (2003), ‘Counterpoint: Three Movies, a book, and an old photograph’ (2004) and ‘Woman in the Distance’ (2005). We then turn back to fiction and consider the extent to which DeLillo’s work cumulatively constitutes a philosophy of film. This filmosophy resonates with developments in the history of film theory, especially in relation to montage, auteurism, stars, spectatorship, cinematic phenomenology and spaces of film consumption. Specifically, we focus on Underworld, Players and ‘The Weekend’ in relation to theories of Soviet montage, the theoretical and filmic work of Eisenstein and Godard, French auteur theory, Merleau-Ponty’s model of embodied spectatorship, the concept of the ‘haptic image’, the gravitational pull of the movie star and the shaping influence of different types of cinematic venues and technologies.