The Essay film as a Tool for Thought: Michel de Montaigne as Methodology

Abstract

The 16th century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne provides the methodological core for this thesis’ investigation of the essay film genre. Using Montaigne’s driving principle of uncertainty, my essay film The Forest in Me attempts to illuminate the genre’s ability to offer encouraging, stimulating, and cinematic possibilities into mining the difficult sensation of not knowing. The thesis proposes the essay film as new, personal filmic-thinking through a celebratory tasting, testing and cross-referencing of everyday moments. Through a seven-point Montaigne inspired film manifesto, the thesis carves a route through the iterating subjects of time and the everyday. My subject is not a study of Montaigne himself, but instead focuses his methods of testing and challenging himself. The thesis uncovers a commitment to tasting the singularity of our experiences against wider connections that ripple through time. Reflecting on Montaigne’s weaving of both mind and body into his texts, my practice draws from recent archive footage of my child to experiment with notions of haptic visuality as a route towards a re-examination of the everyday. Through an epistolary mode of address, I use the lens of motherhood to dig deeper into the subject of time. A hermit living in the Siberian Forest and an isolated crew simulating life on Mars, serve as cross-reference to draw out visual and rhythmic communalities of the everyday. The thesis breaks down all the parts of the practice to examine the ways in which Montaigne’s risk-taking approaches have been crucial. Making use of Laura Rascaroli’s argument that the essay form exists and thrives in gaps, I demonstrate how these spaces can be carved within the everyday life of a filmmaker and mother. This thesis proposes that the process of essaying does not only offer a new personal tool for thought, but also a valuable method of holding on to uncertainty, engendering a revitalizing form of exploratory attention and opportunity to express care.