Author Archives: hanichj

Mise en Esprit: One-Character Films and the Evocation of Sensory Imagination

In: Paragraph. Vol. 43, No. 3, 2020. pp. 249-264 This article starts out by introducing the category of the ‘one-character film’ — that is, narrative feature films that rely on a single onscreen character. One-character films can range from extremely laconic movies entirely focused on the action in the narrative here-and-now via highly talkative films […]

Auslassen, Andeuten, Auffüllen. Der Film und die Imagination des Zuschauers – eine Annäherung

In: Julian Hanich/Hans-Jürgen Wulff (eds.): Auslassen, Andeuten, Auffüllen. Der Film und die Imagination des Zuschauers.Paderborn: Fink, 2012. Link to the PDF file

Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers: The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear.

Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers. The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear. New York: Routledge, 2010(paperback version: 2012). Link to Leseprobe Link to Amazon-Seite Review from Jane Stadler in “Projections – The Journal for Movies and Mind” Review from Rayd Khouloki in “Sehepunkte” Review from Rolf Löchel in “Literaturkritik.de“ Review from Flavia Monceri in […]

The Structures of the Film Experience by Jean-Pierre Meunier: Historical Assessments and Phenomenological Expansions (Herausgegeben mit Daniel Fairfax)

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019.  Link to the open access version of the book For the first time this volume makes Jean-Pierre Meunier’s insightful thoughts on the film experience available for an English-speaking readership. Introduced and commented by specialists in film studies and philosophy, Meunier’s intricate phenomenological descriptions of the spectator’s engagement with fiction films, […]

Suggestive Verbalizations in Film: On Character Speech and Sensory Imagination

In: New Review of Film and Television Studies (forthcoming in 2022) Against the background of a widespread language skepticism among film theorists and practitioners, this article aims to highlight the evocative potential of spoken words in cinema. Focusing on an aesthetic device dubbed ‘suggestive verbalization,’ it demonstrates how character speech can powerfully appeal to the […]

On Pros and Cons and Bills and Gates: The Heist Film as Pleasure

In: Film-Philosophy. Vol. 24, No.3, 2020. pp. 304-320. This article tries to shed light on the multiple, but underrated pleasures of the heist film – a genre that has attracted numerous major directors from Jean-Pierre Melville and Stanley Kubrick to Michael Mann and Steven Soderbergh, but has received limited scholarly attention. I approach the genre […]