Film and Emotional Response

1. Film and Emotional Response What is ‘Emotional Response’?

2. What is emotion? • A Feeling? • Too Vague • Are emotions linked to thought? • Can an spectator experience fear in a horror movie without a thought process? • Physiological responses – jump, scream etc • Momentary • Psychological responses – terror etc • These can last (much) longer lasting

3. Does everybody react the same way? • Why do some people laugh at the same sequence that makes you terrified? • Most films offer a range of opportunities for a variety of emotional responses • But we will not all experience these the same • So, what determines our individual predisposition to respond in particular emotional ways at certain points in certain films? • Not an easy question

4. The creation of ‘shock’ • Film is in the grand tradition of potentially shocking entertainment • Film’s ability to shock is myriad • Audiences in 1895 were shocked simply my moving images • Modern day mainstream audiences are shocked by anti-narrative or avant-garde • And, of course, the perennial but changing representation of sex and violence

5. Content and Form • Content – Subject matter • Form – Style • Think of “Un Chien Andalou” • Shocking in both form and content • Still shocking today? • “Freaks”. • Shocking in content only but also still shocking • “Psycho”, however seems to have lost some of its ability to shock. Why?

6. Historical Perspective – What did audiences find shocking about • “Psycho” (Hitchcock 60)

7. Historical Perspective – What about “Un Chien Andalou” & “Freaks”? Still shocking?

8. Historical Perspective • So is it true that films are more shocking now than in the past? • Are the things filmmakers want to show us progressively getting more shocking over time? She would have said so. Was she right?

9. Why do audiences want to be shocked? • Film has always attempted to engage the emotions of the spectator • Audiences watch films in order to have their emotions aroused • Effective storytelling encourages us to respond with human emotions • Sympathy • Empathy • Identification • Audiences obviously find this pleasurable or they would not return

10. Audiences • We need to remember the range of emotional responses possibly resulting from a variety of readings by different spectators. • Not everyone will react in the same way • Filmmakers have no control over individual readings or responses to their films

11. Voyeurism • Film is voyeuristic and pleasurable • Scopophilic • What sorts of emotions does this engender? • The pleasure in vicariously experiencing or taking part in a taboo?

12. Pleasurable? • What emotions do these bloody scenes engender? • Are they pleasurable? • If not, why do audiences watch these sorts of films?

13. Deconstruction • “Deconstruction Theory” challenges the idea that each text / film has a unified meaning that is true for all readers / spectators • It also challenges the notion that the author is the source of a text’s meaning • It therefore suggests that for each text there is a multiplicity of legitimate interpretations • This means that the viewer has control over the creation of a film (in terms of its effects)

14. Alternatively • It can (and has been) argued that the spectator is positioned by the text and its ideologies • Meaning, audiences are manipulated by the filmmaker • Audiences are either • Active and in control or • Passive victims • What do you think?

15. Regulation and Censorship • Why do regulation and censorship exist? • Ostensibly because there is a fear that the material could create to strong and emotional response • Does these mean that those prevented from seeing particular films are not able to deal with their emotional responses? • Films are often accused of bring about anti-social behaviour. Particularly among the working class and the young • Why is this? To what extent is it the emotional response that is feared?

16. “Fans” • Fan is short for ‘fanatic’ • Intense emotional relationship films • Passionate • General ‘film fans’ • As entertainment • As artistic expression • As political / social expression • Specific ‘film fans’ • Genres • ‘Cult’ movies • Film series • Stars • Directors

17. “Fandom” • What does it mean to be a fan? • How do they express their likes and dislikes? • What role do they play in the industry? • Talking • Writing • Consuming

18. Power • So are fans • Powerful? or • Weak and easily manipulated by marketing?

20. “X-Men” director, Bryan Singer has spoken of the difficult of making the film because of the existing comic-book fan-base and their expectations and ‘demands’ • Fans often have perceived ‘ownership’ of particular texts • However, if suitably impressed, these fans are a ‘ready-made audience’

21. Possible exam questions • Creating the opportunity for emotional responses in popular films is simply to do with manipulating the audience: mainstream audiences don’t attempt to use emotional responses to make any more considered points. From your experience would you agree with this? • Would you agree that strong emotional effects are achieved in some films by the careful use of film construction techniques and in others by the subject matter itself? • After the shock of the initial viewing, do subsequent viewings lessen or intensify the impact of shocking images and/ or subject matter? • After you have watched a melodrama or romantic comedy, does the emotional response change on subsequent viewings, or does it always seem just as intense and fresh as the first time?