Conclusion

What is it about?

The conclusion returns to the problem of how the feel-bad films relate to a humanist ideal of spectatorship (that can be associated with the Hegelian notion of recognition). It proposes that unlike humanist films, feel-bad films do not consider the relation between spectator and film as a model for ethical relations in society. It furthermore argues that the widespread inclination to think the artistic experience as a more or less direct model for social relations can have unfortunate consequences. If we require the relation between a film and its spectator to be similar to relations of intersubjectivity more generally, we rob ourselves of the possibility to think the human psyche in all its complexities. Finally, the conclusion notes that certain films discussed in the book (not least Herzog’s Even Dwarfs Started Small and Korine’s Trash Humpers) seem to marginalize the question of ethics altogether. These films are particularly challenging in so far as they prompt us to consider whether an ethical framing of the filmic experience can sometimes be limiting.

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