Abstract
This paper is an attempt to trace how the concepts of intuition and duration as formulated by the philosopher Henri Bergson have permeated areas of film studies where he is not typically considered to be an important figure, such as film criticism. After the publication of the English language version of Henri Bergson's Creative Evolution in 1911, the analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell published a polemic attack against him. This disagreement between the two can be seen to focus on the proper role of analysis. Where Bergson believed that through intuition we can come to see something of the wholeness of a thing, Russell believed this to be a preposterous claim. I examine how this fissure between the two concerning the importance of intuition and analysis has reoccurred in the debate between David Bordwell and V.F. Perkins concerning the former's book, Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema (1989), as well as how Bergson's concept of duration has influenced the early film theorist and film-maker Jean Epstein. Interestingly, this influence has again come under attack by another analytic thinker: Malcolm Turvey.
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