One of the most critical factors in creating “good” films is the approach in creating the emotional foundation of a story. Hollywood film producers have always taken interest in depicturing particular scenes in order to make the audience share the emotions, which main characters go through on the screen. Despite the fairly long history of film production, many scholars are still examining the issue of emotional responses to films. One of the investigators, Alex Neill, puts an edge on the question of two different types of emotional responses to the film fiction: empathy and sympathy, in his essay “Empathy and (Film) Fiction”. According to Neill’s theory, which I am going to explore furthermore in my paper, empathy becomes the more valuable feeling expression than sympathy. From my point of view, Michael Gondry’s film, Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind, is a good example, which can possibly embody Neill’s theory on empathetic responses to the film fiction. Thus, the question of whether the audience responds empathetically or sympathetically to this particular film and the value of those emotions can be answered through the close analysis of both the scholar research and the film itself.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a melodrama with the mix of fantastic events happening in real world. This melancholy story shows the audience a typical couple in love, which experiences a tragic crisis in their relations. Typical, depressed and boring “loser”, Joel Barish (Jim Carrey), appears on the break-up with substandard, overemotional and intrusive woman, Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet). She accesses some specific services of little company, which can erase any person or event from the memory, and vanishes all the memories abo...
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... achieved the level of being valuable in understanding the inner approaches of different films. Apparently, both Alex Neill and Michel Gondry construct their projects in the way they can be analyzed together, though leaving the room for the audience to use their imagination and improve their emotional education.
Works Cited
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology, eds. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
Gaut, Berys. “Identification and Emotion in Narrative Film.” Passionate Views, eds. Carl R. Plantinga and Greg M. Smith. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1999. 200-216. Print.
Noel Carroll. “Film, Emotion and Genre.” Passionate Views, eds. Carl R. Plantinga and Greg M. Smith. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1999. 21-47. Print.
In his essay, “It’s Just a Movie: A Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes”, Greg M. Smith argues that analyzing a film does not ruin, but enhances a movie-viewing experience; he supports his argument with supporting evidence. He addresses the careful planning required for movies. Messages are not meant to be telegrams. Audiences read into movies to understand basic plotlines. Viewers should examine works rather than society’s explanations. Each piece contributes to Smith’s argument, movies are worth scrutinizing.
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology. Ed. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
Movies distort reality by creating an ideal conflictual ambience, from which all the subtle human emotions and the characters arise. Humans might appear as consensus beings, seeking conformation and avoiding alienation by “society”. However, referring back to Aristotle’s saying, “human beings are by nature political animals” (1999), humans continually strive for power and control inasmuch as they strive for pure oxygen to breathe. Movies unleash these “socially unacceptable” political animals, exposing the hidden moral corruption embedded within most humans. Movies accomplish such a task by distorting reality, by reshaping the truth into a collection of video shots, taken from different angles, creating different meanings to content; the true meaning. The three genres of literature – narratives, poetry and drama – establish the key to revealing the distortion, thus providing humans with the ultimate method of deciphering our reality through the eyes of a glass lens. In the movie Do the Right Thing, these genres come together to paint a “picture” of us.
BIBLIOGRAPHY An Introduction to Film Studies Jill Nelmes (ed.) Routledge 1996 Anatomy of Film Bernard H. Dick St. Martins Press 1998 Key Concepts in Cinema Studies Susan Hayward Routledge 1996 Teach Yourself Film Studies Warren Buckland Hodder & Stoughton 1998 Interpreting the Moving Image Noel Carroll Cambridge University Press 1998 The Cinema Book Pam Cook (ed.) BFI 1985 FILMOGRAPHY All That Heaven Allows Dir. Douglas Sirk Universal 1955 Being There Dir. Hal Ashby 1979
Lehman, Peter and Luhr, William. Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
The crowd-pleaser walks a fine, inescapable line between uplift and shameless maudlinism. Cynicism is pervasive, yet unapologetically sentimental films such as Rocky and Forrest Gump periodically magnetize the multitudes. The story of the underdog who defies the odds is as timeless as it is transparent. Rudimentary emotions, despite their apparent simplicity, can be ineffably potent.
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
In Hollywood today, most films can be categorized according to the genre system. There are action films, horror flicks, Westerns, comedies and the likes. On a broader scope, films are often separated into two categories: Hollywood films, and independent or foreign ‘art house’ films. Yet, this outlook, albeit superficial, was how many viewed films. Celebrity-packed blockbusters filled with action and drama, with the use of seamless top-of-the-line digital editing and special effects were considered ‘Hollywood films’. Films where unconventional themes like existentialism or paranoia, often with excessive violence or sex or a combination of both, with obvious attempts to displace its audiences from the film were often attributed with the generic label of ‘foreign’ or ‘art house’ cinema.
Barsam, R. M., Monahan, D., & Gocsik, K. M. (2012). Looking at movies: an introduction to film (4th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co..
Fabe, Marilyn. "Psychological Themes." Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 2004. 105-10. Print.
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.
Movies take us inside the skin of people quite different from ourselves and to places different from our routine surroundings. As humans, we always seek enlargement of our being and wanted to be more than ourselves. Each one of us, by nature, sees the world with a perspective and selectivity different from others. But, we want to see the world through other’s eyes; imagine with other’s imaginations; feel with other’s hearts, at a same time as with our own. Movies offer us a window onto the wider world, broadening our perspective and opening our eyes to new wonders.