Abstract/Summary

Ordinarily, what we experience does not jump from one place or time to another—we have to pass through all the intermediate times and places. But in films, what we experience can jump in both dimensions, both separately (remaining in the same space but jumping forward or backward in time; remaining at the same time but jumping across different spaces) and together. This phenomenon has been memorably described in film criticism by Rudolph Arnheim (Film As Art 1933) and it has been deployed philosophically by Suzanne Langer (Feeling and Form 1953) and Colin McGinn (The Power of Movies 2005). But discussion of space-time discontinuity remains hampered by the lack of attunement between film critical and philosophical investigations. Without philosophy, the valuable insights of film criticism lack rigour and have been blunted by conceptual imprecision and confusion; without film criticism, the provocative claims of philosophy lack support, floating free of the evidence that a suitably sharp awareness of the details of particular films alone provides. This paper brings philosophy and film criticism to bear on each other so that we stand to make headway on the issue of film and space-time discontinuity.