How Has the Experience of Cinema-Going Changed over the Past Century
MAS205 Essay #1
Question 1
The film-industry has changed dramatically since its birth over a century ago. With these changes have also come great changes in the cinema-going experience. In the MAS205 unit reader for 2005, a number of the readings aim to address many aspects of the experience of cinema-going. Included in the unit reader are pieces by Barthes, Carriere, Sontag, Moore and Lowenstein. Each of these writers has varying feelings to cinema-going over the past century and this essay will aim to address these different aspects.
Roland Barthes' in his article Leaving the Movie Theatre' provides us with an interesting way of looking at cinema-going. He paints a picture at the start of his article about moviegoers always leaving the cinema in a hypnotic state, describing the moviegoer is "a little dazed, wrapped up in himself sleepy and he feels a little disjointed." (Barthes, R. 1986) These traits are common to moviegoers as they leave the cinema. My previous opinion on these traits was that since you have been sitting down for the past two to three hours, you must be tired. However, Barthes argues that when we enter the cinema, a "dim, anonymous, indifferent cube where that festival of affects known as a film will be presented", we are entering into the state of mind that we want to become a spectator and, in a sense, be hypnotized. We experience an "absence of worldliness", a "relaxation of postures" and an "inoccupation of bodies." (Barthes, R. 1986)
The primary focus once we enter the cinema is the screen and this is what hypnotizes us. Barthes provides an interesting anecdote in which he describes the screen as "a long stem of light [that] outline[s] a keyhole." (Barthes, R. 1986) Human beings are naturally voyeuristic and have a fascination with staring into the lives of others. While what's happening on screen may be fictional, we are staring through this keyhole into the private lives of others; and we are "glued" to it (Barthes, R. 1986).
Question 1
The film-industry has changed dramatically since its birth over a century ago. With these changes have also come great changes in the cinema-going experience. In the MAS205 unit reader for 2005, a number of the readings aim to address many aspects of the experience of cinema-going. Included in the unit reader are pieces by Barthes, Carriere, Sontag, Moore and Lowenstein. Each of these writers has varying feelings to cinema-going over the past century and this essay will aim to address these different aspects.
Roland Barthes' in his article Leaving the Movie Theatre' provides us with an interesting way of looking at cinema-going. He paints a picture at the start of his article about moviegoers always leaving the cinema in a hypnotic state, describing the moviegoer is "a little dazed, wrapped up in himself sleepy and he feels a little disjointed." (Barthes, R. 1986) These traits are common to moviegoers as they leave the cinema. My previous opinion on these traits was that since you have been sitting down for the past two to three hours, you must be tired. However, Barthes argues that when we enter the cinema, a "dim, anonymous, indifferent cube where that festival of affects known as a film will be presented", we are entering into the state of mind that we want to become a spectator and, in a sense, be hypnotized. We experience an "absence of worldliness", a "relaxation of postures" and an "inoccupation of bodies." (Barthes, R. 1986)
The primary focus once we enter the cinema is the screen and this is what hypnotizes us. Barthes provides an interesting anecdote in which he describes the screen as "a long stem of light [that] outline[s] a keyhole." (Barthes, R. 1986) Human beings are naturally voyeuristic and have a fascination with staring into the lives of others. While what's happening on screen may be fictional, we are staring through this keyhole into the private lives of others; and we are "glued" to it (Barthes, R. 1986).
References: Barthes, Roland. "Leaving the Movie Theatre," in Barthes, The Rustle of Language, trans. Richard Howard (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986): pp. 345-349 Carriere, Jean-Claude. "Introduction" to his The Secret Language of Film, trans. Jeremy Leggatt (New York: Pantheon, 1994): pp. 3-5 Lowenstein, Richard. "Elvis and the Aboriginals," in Projections 4 and 1/2 (1995): pp. 246-248 Moore, Lorrie. "Titanic," in Jim Shepard, ed. Writers at the Movies: Twenty-six Contemporary Authors Celebrate twenty-six Memorable Movies (New York: Harper Collins, 2000): pp. 180-183 Sontag, Susan. "A Century of Cinema," Parnassus 22, 1/2 (1997): pp. 23-28