Film Europa, Volume 7: Michael Haneke's Cinema: The Ethic of the Image

In this first English-language introduction to, & critical analysis of, his work, each of Haneke's eight feature films are considered in detail. Particular attention is given to what the author terms Michael Haneke's 'ethical cinema' & the unique impact of these films upon their audiences.

Drawing on the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant & Stanley Cavell, Catherine Wheatley, introduces a new way of marrying film & moral philosophy, which explicitly examines the ethics of the film viewing experience. Haneke's films offer the viewer great freedom whilst simultaneously imposing a considerable burden of responsibility. How Haneke achieves this break with more conventional spectatorship models, & what its far-reaching implications are for film theory in general, constitute the principal subject of this book.

Catherine Wheatley is Lecturer in Film Studies at King's College London, UK. She is the author of Michael Haneke's Cinema: The Ethic of the Image (2008) & the co-editor of Je t'aime… moi non plus (2010).