Fate in Film: A Deterministic Approach to Cinema

The course of events is predetermined and cannot be changed, as seen in contemporary cinema, which explores the tension between fate and free will. Thomas M. Puhr examines how films express deterministic ideas, such as circular narratives and fatalistic portraits of external forces dictating characters' lives. He explores how films such as Joel and Ethan Coens' Inside Llewyn Davis, Ari Asters' Hereditary, Jordan Peeles' Us, and Lucrecia Martels' Zama confront the limits of human agency and how viewers can only sit and watch.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 18 October 2022
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The course of events is predetermined and cannot be changed, as forces beyond our control or even our comprehension shape our fates. This deterministic worldview is embedded in a wide swath of contemporary cinema, from arthouse experiments to popular genre films, through both thematic concerns and narrative structures. These films, particularly the recent spate of "elevated" science fiction and horror, tap into this deep-seated anxiety by focusing on characters who ultimately fail to transcend the patterns and structures that define them.

Thomas M. Puhr identifies and analyzes the ways that cinema has dealt with the tension between fate and free will, from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining to Christopher Nolan's Tenet. He examines films that express deterministic ideas, including circular narratives of stasis or confinement and fatalistic portraits of external forces dictating characters' lives. Puhr considers determinism at the levels of the individual, the family, and society, reading films in which characters are trapped by past or alternate selves, the burdens of family histories, or oppressive social structures. He explores how films such as Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis, Ari Aster's Hereditary, Jordan Peeles' Us, and Lucrecia Martel's Zama confront the limits of human agency.

Puhr relates deterministic themes to the nature of moviegoing: In denying characters any ability to choose alternative paths, these films mirror how viewers themselves can only sit and watch. Recasting the works of some of today's most compelling directors, Fate in Film is an innovative critical account of an unrecognized yet crucial aspect of contemporary cinema.

Weight: 234g
Dimension: 140 x 216 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231203913