Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Poetic Faith in Film is a study of the way we watch film. Anthony Ferri explores the way expectations influence what they see, feel, and experience. Using Coleridge's term "willing suspension of disbelief" as a starting point, Ferri sets forth a fascinating study of the psychology of watching film. While film scholars and professionals have alluded to Coleridge's term in a parenthetical or tertiary manner, this volume 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.Willing Suspension of Disbelief is valuable for film scholars and students of film.

"Willing Suspension of Disbelief is impeccably reserached, the author excelling at synthesizing relevant literature . . . The book emerges as a useful work that raises intriguing questions and research possibilities about the nature and function of viewer imagination. It will appeal to readers interested in how audiences experience film and how that process gives film its meaning and import." - Journal of Film and Video, Winter 2009