filmische

Filmische is a German term that translates roughly as “cinematic” or “pertaining to film.” In film theory and criticism, das Filmische denotes the distinct language and sensibility of cinema—the features and effects that arise from the moving image as a medium, rather than from literature or theater. It encompasses formal elements such as editing and montage, shot composition, camera movement, and sound, as well as the ways in which time, space, and bodies are represented onscreen. The concept also includes the phenomenology of watching film—the sensory and perceptual experience produced by the film apparatus.

Scholars use the term to analyze how cinema constructs meaning through its technical means. A film’s narrative can be inseparable from the filmic organization of images and sounds: rhythm, sequencing, shot duration, and spatial relations shape mood, interpretation, and ideology. The filmische thus often foregrounds questions about representation, realism, and the specificity of film as a medium.

In German-language film theory and aesthetics, the filmische has been employed to discuss the differences between cinematic and other forms of storytelling, and to theorize how film creates its own truth-conditions through montage, framing, and materiality. Related discussions include the cinematic gaze, image interpretation, and the sociology of film reception.

See also: film theory, montage, cinematography, German film theory, cinema.