Willing Suspension of Disbelief Poetic Faith in Film

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1817 term, a willing suspension of disbelief, has survived and been used by film critics and others to describe what happens when a movie viewer watches a movie. While film scholars and professionals have alluded to the term in a parenthetical or tertiary manner, this manuscript makes a definitive account for the concept and provides a contemporary analysis of the film viewing process from a variety of critical and empirical perspectives.

Anthony J. Ferri is associate professor in the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.