The Filmmaker’s Philosopher is a highly effective text that handles complex, ever-elusive philosophical thinking with great confidence and clarity. It will undoubtedly be useful to a great variety of researchers, from Mamardashvili scholars to film-philosophers who are yet to discover his invigorating ideas.

- Ilia Ryzhenko, Film-Philosophy

The Filmmaker’s Philosopher is a deep, sustained study that reads with great interest to the end. In addition to its rigorous philosophical explorations and insightful new readings of particular films, DeBlasio crafts a vivid portrait of Mamardashvili himself, with his sartorial elegance, the smoky lecture halls of late socialism, and the exhilaration of free thought. The book is a must-read for Russian film studies, but will also greatly interest students and specialists of late Soviet culture and philosophy.

- Justin Wilmes, East Carolina University, Slavic Review Vol. 79, Issue 4

The Filmmaker’s Philosopher is a deep, sustained study that reads with great interest to the end. In addition to its rigorous philosophical explorations and insightful new readings of particular films, DeBlasio crafts a vivid portrait of Mamardashvili himself, with his sartorial elegance, the smoky lecture halls of late socialism, and the exhilaration of free thought. The book is a must-read for Russian film studies, but will also greatly interest students and specialists of late Soviet culture and philosophy.

- Justin Wilmes, East Carolina University, Slavic Review Vol. 79, Issue 4

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DeBlasio’s book has the merit of introducing Merab Mamardashvili to scholars who do not read Russian and it does so from an interesting angle. [...] two hundred pages of pleasant and clear narrative [...]

- Elisa Pontini, Radboud University, Studies in East European Thought (2020) 72

[A] fascinating and original book [...] DeBlasio is a reliable guide to both the cinema and the philosophy.

- Anthony Anemone, The New School, The Russian Review, Vol. 80, No. 2

We have been missing this book. Merab Mamardashvili was force of freedom in the Soviet academy, not for what he said, but how. His life spanned the cold-war divide, influencing an entire generation of filmmakers and intellectuals. He showed the crowds in his lecture halls that thinking out loud can itself be a political act. DeBlasio's book moves back and forth between the man and the films he inspired, providing a fresh understanding of his times.

- Professor Susan Buck-Morss, CUNY Graduate Center,

Known as the ‘Georgian Socrates’ of Soviet philosophy, Merab Mamardashvili was a defining personality of the late-Soviet intelligentsia. In the 1970s and 1980s, he taught required courses in philosophy at Russia’s two leading film schools, helping to educate a generation of internationally prolific directors. Exploring Mamardashvili’s extensive philosophical output, as well as a range of recent Russian films, Alyssa DeBlasio reveals the intellectual affinities amongst directors of the Mamardashvili generation – including Alexander Sokurov, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Alexei Balabanov. This multidisciplinary study offers an innovative way to think about film, philosophy and the philosophical potential of the moving image.
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Exploring Mamardashvili’s extensive philosophical output, as well as a range of recent Russian films, Alyssa DeBlasio reveals the intellectual affinities amongst directors of the Mamardashvili generation – including Alexander Sokurov, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Alexei Balabanov.
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Acknowledgements Notes on Transliteration Introduction: The Freest Man in the USSR Chapter One: Alexander Sokurov’s Demoted (1980): Consciousness as Celebration Chapter Two: Ivan Dykhovichnyi’s The Black Monk (1988): Madness, Chekhov, and the Chimera of Idleness Chapter Three: Dmitry Mamuliya’s Another Sky (2010): The Language of Consciousness Chapter Four: Alexei Balabanov’s The Castle (1994) and Me Too (2012): Kafka, the Absurd, and the Death of Form Chapter Five: Alexander Zeldovich’s Target (2011): Tolstoy and Mamardashvili on the Infinite and the Earthly Chapter Six: Vadim Abdrashitov and Alexander Mindadze’s The Train Stopped (1982): Film as a Metaphor for Consciousness Conclusion: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless (2017): The Philosophical Image and the Possibilities of Film Bibliography Appendix
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The first study of Mamardashvili’s significant influence on cinema, culture and philosophy in Russia

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781474444491
Publisert
2021-08-31
Utgiver
Edinburgh University Press
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
216

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Alyssa DeBlasio is Associate Professor of Russian at Dickinson College, where she also contributes to the Film Studies and Philosophy programs.