Vice,

Your question was: 'Does anyone have any idea what a cinematic concept might
be, and do you think this notion is inevitably related to auteur theory, or
does it stand on its own in terms of being a bridge between film and
philosophical discourse in a more interdisciplinary perspective?'

I would prefer to use something like the latter of these two meanings. I am
not so sure though that it is a matter of an interdisciplinary perspective
so much as a technical term that is useful for discussing the way film
signifies. Such a term would belong to the cinematic equivalent of
philosophy of language or logic or semiotic or linguistics. On the other
hand I would think of auteur theory as a matter of stylistics, or rhetoric
or poetics.

Although I would think that the term 'cinematic concept' could be used in
several ways, I find it is useful to use it as a term of film 'grammar', ie
in the sense that any film is made up of cinematic concepts, just as any
narrative or argument is made up of concepts (cinematic, linguistic, or
whatever). (Grammar is not quite the right word here. Perhaps cinematics?)

Cinematics, stylistics, etc are all grist for film philosophy.

Some time ago, in the context of discussing the use of dolly counter-zoom
shots , Robert Koehler posted the following about the use of the zoom in
Barry Lyndon:

> The shot I referred to in ``Barry Lyndon'' is actually a repeated
> motif throughout the film, devised by Kubrick and his dp, the late John
> Alcott. It was a very slow, sometimes almost imperceptible pull-back zoom
> from a long focal length position to a wide shot. There was no use of the
> tracking camera in these shots; the camera remained stationary. The shot
is
> used so often in the film that it could only be counted by keeping a
running
> tally, but watch the film and you'll see it right away. I mentioned it
> because the zoom lens had become so popular and overused that it was
pretty
> much ``retired'' as a tool by 1975. Kubrick and Alcott came up with an
> entirely fresh way of using the zoom lens, however; with this new method,
> Kubrick could begin a shot by zeroing in on a character or characters, and
> then gradually reveal them in their place in society or nature, depending
on
> the location. It was also as if Kubrick had taken a Constable painting,
> forced us to look at the detail of tiny characters that are otherwise
> dwarfed by the landscape, and then pulled us back to see the rest of the
> painting around the detail. The sociological, ecological and psychological
> dimensions of this kind of zoom shot were considerable in the context of
> individual shots, and grew even richer with meaning as these shots
> multiplied over the course of the film--as we could mentally compare
earlier
> zoom shots of Barry in his humble Irish background with Barry in his
later,
> absurdly lavish lifestyle, or the petty egotism of a self-inflated
> character, then reduced to their proper ant-sized worth by the enormous
> spread of nature around them. (What's interesting is how Michael Hordern's
> voice-over third-person narration never underlines the meaning of these
> shots, but instead provides another context, some historical background or
> personal data, often taken from Thackerey's novel.) The zoom has rarely
been
> used to this effect, and almost never so well.
> Robert Koehler

This says something about Kubrick as auteur, insofar as it is about a
distinctive cinematic style (call it Kubrick's style if you like - &
Alcott's), but as Robert has described these shots, they, like all shots,
work as image concepts. These in particular start with the disclosure of
certain details and then reveal more about their original subjects by
showing their context. (To call these shots 'slow zoom out reveals' would be
analogous to the way the old works on rhetoric coined terms for what they
considered to be the main types of figures of speech.) Each shot is a
temporal exposition of a complex concept. But then again, any shot is a
temporal exposition of a concept. A cinematic concept. And, in fact, a
string of shots is also a compound cinematic concept.

Ross