Film & Philosophy new season: The Cinema of the Self

This season, titled The Cinema of the Self, brings together three films that approach personal identity from strikingly different angles. Taken together, they form a loose philosophical journey through repetition, memory, and forgetting - three forces that quietly shape who we become.

We begin with Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993), a film that has come to be recognised as one of cinema’s most compelling thought experiments. Trapped in an endlessly repeating day, its protagonist (Phil Connor) is forced to confront the consequences of a life without progress or escape. What starts as a comic fantasy slowly becomes a meditation on habit, responsibility, and whether genuine change is possible without the pressure of time.

From there, the season moves to After Life (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1998), a quiet and deeply humane reflection on memory and meaning. Set in a modest waystation between life and death, the film asks its characters to choose a single memory to carry with them into eternity. In doing so, it raises unsettling and beautiful questions about what truly defines a life - not its achievements, but its texture, relationships, and fleeting moments of recognition.

The season concludes with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004), a formally inventive and emotionally raw exploration of love, loss, and the desire to start again. Here, memory itself becomes something that can be edited, deleted, or rewritten. The film asks whether it is possible to protect ourselves from pain without also losing what makes us who we are.

Across these three films, the self appears not as something fixed or transparent, but as something fragile, shaped by time, memory, and repetition - and constantly open to revision. Rather than offering answers, the season creates a space for reflection and conversation, using cinema as a shared point of departure.

For audiences in Edinburgh, the films will be screened at Filmhouse, with each event introduced by a short framing talk and followed by an open, informal discussion led by James Mooney (University of Edinburgh). No prior knowledge of philosophy is required - the discussions are designed to be accessible and grounded in the experience of watching the film together.

Season screenings at Filmhouse, Edinburgh:

• Groundhog Day - Mon 2 February, 5:45pm
• After Life - Mon 2 March, 5:50pm
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Mon 6 April, 6:00pm

For those engaging with Film & Philosophy from further afield, the season also reflects the wider aims of the project: to use cinema as a way of opening up philosophical questions beyond the classroom, and to treat filmgoing not as passive consumption, but as an opportunity for shared thought.

Whether you join us in the cinema or follow the conversation online, The Cinema of the Self invites you to think about how stories, memories, and repetitions quietly shape the lives we recognise as our own.

🎟️ Tickets for Filmhouse are available at https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/film--philosophy/.
📌 Follow Film & Philosophy for updates, discussion prompts, and future events.