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The concept of the film world has been adopted by many film theorists, albeit with meanings and implications that differ widely, especially with regard to the philosophical expression of the film. Two orders of problems arise when dealing with the film world: its genesis and nature. In a pluralistic and cognitivist perspective, the chapter focuses on the process of film world making and the twofold nature of the film world. The concept of film world is particularly effective because is able to accommodate both objective aspects (the film world as artistic and analysable object) and subjective ones (the film world as perceivable and experienceable expression). Referring to these aspects, Goodman's Ways of Worldmaking (1978) and Yacavone's theory of film worlds (2008, 2014) are discussed, in order to introduce a deeper reflection on the film world as the hermeneutic horizon. While the film world lives only through the filmgoer, and its reality is only perceivable during film experience, it is also problematically outside that actual relation with the filmgoer. As an expression of temporality, disclosed through the past from which it seems to emerge, the present of film experience, and projected towards its future interpretations—the film world always remains hermeneutically open to new meanings.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-65400-3_3

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