The Empathic Screen

`Brains have been copying reality imagetically for a few million years. This nervous obsession was essential for constructing consciousness and for creating descriptions of what is as well as predictions of what may be or will be. One curious consequence of this ability, for humans, was the invention of cinema, the art that Vittorio Gallese and Michele Guerra so beautifully analyze as scientists and humanists in The Empathic Screen, Cinema and Neuroscience. Theirs is an indispensable book. ' Antonio Damasio, Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, University of Southern California, Author of The Strange Order of Things `In this brilliant book, Vittorio Gallese and Michele Guerra both refine and reconfigure the spectator's embodied relation to moving pictures. With its impressive philosophical reach, lucid explanations of the authors' original neuroscience research, and copious illustrations from the history of film, The Empathic Screen exemplifies interdisciplinary thought at its shining best. ' Siri Hustvedt, PhD, novelist, essayist, author of Memories of the Future (2019). `An unprecedented re-examination that tests classical film theories with neurosciences. A surprising dialogue that reignites our interest in film aesthetics and spectatorship, and opens an experimental approach to understanding the evolution of visual styles and narrative strategies in cinema. ' Francesco Casetti, Yale University