BOOK REVIEWS
105
Willing Suspension of Disbelief:
Poetic Faith in Film
Anthony J. Ferri
Lexington Books, 2007
We’ve all heard the phrase, many of us have even used the phrase, but do
we know where it came from and what experience it was describing? Anthony J.
Ferri, author of Willing Suspension o f D isbelief provides his readers with a
thorough study of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s phrase “willing suspension of
disbelief.” This writer studies the repeated modem application of the phrase to
the context of film: a medium with which Coleridge had no experience as film
was developed nearly eighty years after he passed away in 1817. Ferri asks how
a “nineteenth century term” applies to the film viewing experience in a “twentyfirst-century world.” He notes that this famous phrase has been studied, and the
experience it describes has been discussed by many throughout history, but none
has captured the heart of the poetic experience as Coleridge did. Ferri rightfully
asserts that these four words remain the “quintessential phrase identifying the
heart of the viewing process.”
This book is a fascinating and important study of how films are viewed and
the psychology that takes place during the viewing process. This process allows
movie viewers to transport themselves beyond time and physical constraints into
the world created by the filmmaker. This work is further enriched by Ferri’s
ability to bring together his study of Coleridge’s philosophies and modem
theory on audience reception. First, the author approaches his study by
describing the historical and experiential background of Samuel Coleridge; he
then moves on to clarifying the phrase in terms of “its context and author” for
his readers.
Ferri goes on to outline audience reception theory and the difficulties
researchers experience when attempting to assess what happens cognitively as
individuals view films. Assessing the phenomena while not interrupting the
viewing process in order to allow the experience to overtake the viewer’s senses,
is difficult to say the least. Audience behavior study is outlined back to its
inception with the provision of anecdotal reports of audience reaction to early
films, including industry research conducted to assess the success of movies by
motion picture companies.
The author himself conducted research, an “exploratory field project”
during a two-year period whereby he intercepted and surveyed exiting movie
patrons. He outlines the data he collected and discusses the challenges he
encountered in attempting to “empirically map the willing suspension of
disbelief.” While he provides empirical evidence of what occurs during the