When people hear the word cinema, they usually think to a film or theater. Nothing else is added to that, a certain favorite place or movie might come to mind, but nothing else. Cinema is not limited to these components of overall film culture. It is not just the experience of watching a film, but it is the experience of the travel beforehand, from the second the journey begins to arrive upon the desired location and all the steps up until the film itself begins. The viewing and personal responses to this cinema is also part of the experience, one that compared to the journey can be more of a collective experience.
When going to the cinema, I either go with friends, family, or most times on my own. The travel from home to a movie theater can
And that reason is not the same upon every departure to the film. Barthes writes, “for the case of a specific cultural quest…he goes to movies as a response to idleness, leisure, free time” . He believes that we are under hypnosis, a spell cast over us to fill in a part of our lives. While there may be one film in mind to be watched, no matter what it is just for passing time, wanting something to do for a certain length of minutes. Yet, in the end it involves the same action: my body and all that is connected to it will be sitting in a theater to watch a
Everywhere I turn in a theater, there is always a small preview of another film. Posters and cardboard cutouts are placed; trailers are being played for current and upcoming films. It is impossible to avoid any of these attractions. They are being projected and just by being within their presence we are absorbing these images and sounds. Being able to see more than just the current showings brings up future cinema viewing plans, involving what I may be curious to watch and deciding for myself, based upon what I can see, will truly catch my interest. My decisions at this time do not matter; they are just a preliminary thought for those films advertised, the time it will come to a true thought will be the closer time of their release date. Until then, they are all pushed aside by the thought of watching the current
Lehman, Peter and Luhr, William. Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
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
To begin with, some people would say they enjoy a horror movie that gets them scared out of their wits. They go see these movies once a month on average, for fun, each time choosing a newer sequel like “Final Destination” or “The evil Dead”. King says “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie we are daring the nightmare” (405). As a writer of best-sel...
Movies are a huge part of many Americans’ lives. Everyone has a particular genre that they like the most or a particular actor. There are many genres to choose from such as action, romance, drama, musical, documentary, horror, comedy, and children’s movies. This is always attached with the cliché ‘Everyone’s a critic.’ Movies will only want to be seen if someone else says that the movie is good. They trust that advice so that they will spend anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours watching a motion picture. This form of entertainment is driven by the viewer. Horror movies however, are designed by the same chronology: introduction, conflict climax, resolution. Horror movies also have many actors that do not show up in the sequel. The actors also are very unrecognizable because of the possibility that these actors are killed off in the movie as it progresses. Horror movies cause people to do many things no other type of movie can deliver. Horror movies make viewers jump, they make them scream, and they make the viewers want to cover their eyes. All of these aspects make horror movies a heart-pounding and enjoyable form of entertainment.
Small, Pauline. (2005) New Cinemas: journal of Contemporary Film Volume 3, Queen Mary, University of London
Rascaroli, Laura. "The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments." Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 49.2 (2008): 24-47. JSTOR. Web. 08 May 2014.
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.
Gallagher, T. 2002. Senses of Cinema – Max Ophuls: A New Art – But Who Notices?. [online] Available at: http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/feature-articles/ophuls/ [Accessed: 8 Apr 2014].
The concept of ‘cinema of attractions’ encompasses the development of early cinema, its technology, industry and cultural context. The explanation of how it is perceived by early cinema audiences is closely related to the effects of history at that time. How Gunning coined the term ‘cinema of attractions’ pertains to the history of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century and his interpretation of the audience and their reaction film technology. Single shots, the process of creating a moving picture and the juxtaposition of limited techniques, coupled with a new invention of showing a moving picture.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
" Cinema and the Nation. Ed. Mette Hjort and Scott Mackenzie. New York City, NY: Routledge, 2000. 260-277.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
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.
The aim of this research is to explore cinema audience's, festival goers' and workers in cinema views and experiences of film festivals, trying to understand what values they give to them and trying to figure out if they believe that in difficult times, such as the one we are living through, a film exhibition is still necessary.
First of all, I would like to go over my expectations of movies in the future: