"This book's analysis of individual films are among the deepest known to me, tireless and surprising to the end, unswervingly following the experience or conviction that film, in its high instances (more numerous than a hasty glance announces) deserves the attention due to, rewarded by, a great art. If there is such a field in the offing as Film and Philosophy, Peretz's book must form a notable piece of its curriculum."Stanley Cavell, Harvard University "Modestly framed as an attempt to lift Brian de Palma from the category of Hitchcock imitator and restore his unique vision, and as a rethinking of the function of the frame in film, Becoming Visionary opens into a brilliant speculation on cinema itself, on cinema as an apparatus of sensation. A certain mirror paradoxhow can what is limited contain the reflection of what is infinitely more vast?thus defines the method and argument of this stunning, breakaway book. Philosophy and film have never seemed more suited for mutual enlightenment than in Peretz's deft analysis." - Joan Copjec (SUNY Buffalo)