The subject of this chapter is a problem and how we solve it. The problem I shall call the interpretive problem, and it is this: an interpreter starts with something and ends with something else. The interpreter of a novel starts with a text – a sequence of words and sentences – and ends with a story: the story which, as the reader/interpreter sees it, is told by that text. The interpreter of a film starts with a sequence of cinematic images and their auditory accompaniments, and ends with a story: the story which, as the viewer/interpreter sees it, is told by those images and sounds. The interpretive problem is how to get from the one to the other. The philosopher's problem is to give an abstract characterization of the principles and methodological rules in accordance with which interpreters solve the interpretive problem. In solving the philosopher's problem, we give a theory of interpretation.

The interpretive problem looks so forbiddingly difficult it can seem astonishing it ever gets solved at all. In the filmic case, images succeed one another quickly, the film cutting across large chunks of space and time. Sometimes the narrative is reshuffled, as with flashback. Usually this goes on without any explicit commentary or other onscreen direction to indicate the relation between successive images.