A Cinematic Reflection on Happiness

초록

In this paper, we will examine Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night”, the oldest film among the seven, more specifically by relying on Cavell's interpretation; and occasionally we refer to the Cavell’s examination on the other films as well. Cavell asks questions about marriage from these films. And he intends to consider marriage in the philosophical point of view of the pursuit of everyday happiness. Cavell’s philosophy begins with a cartesian doubt on the existence of the world and of the mind of others. And this question of skepticism is inherited from Hume and Kant in philosophy. There is fundamental solitude in skepticism. If there is fundamental solitude in two different married couples, how can they go toward the common goal: pursuit of happiness? Cavell explains the possibility: through a philosophical reflection on ‘conversation’ in remarriage comedy. Conversation is the place where a relationship of equality in the couple is invented, and where the education and recognition of the other are formed. Acknowledgement because all this education is marked by repetition (re-marriage, re-union, recognition), that is to say: not the acquisition or discovery of something new, but the acceptance of others and the possibility to start all over again differently.

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