One thing that’s I’ve been thinking about as I’ve visited the movies recently (I’m a big, big movie guy, well, as much I can afford to be with my meager income…) is the collective element of several people in a dark room collectively sharing the experiences of the characters on screen. Do movies, through this collective experience, give us a greater understanding of our shared humanity?
I think that this could be true to an extent.
There are certain things which are inherent to movies which cannot escape the collective experience. In other words not everyone may ‘get’ a movie, or ‘like’ it, but we all share certain things like: Music, timeline, quotes, etc.
A little while ago I was watching Muholland Drive (incredible movie), and its a very abstract, dual reality type film… but everyone who watches it shares the same sense of 'what the frig is going on’ness that in turn promotes this sense of communal dialogue. Some feminist thinkers (among others I’m sure) believe that feminist art requires not only the artist and their work… but the impact of the dialogue that results in the community to realize the full aesthetic.
I think the shared experience is integral to personal learning and growth… it gives you perspective. Ever be talking to someone and have something happen where you both know exactly what the other person is thinking? It’s usually sexual. You know… say you and a possible sexual mate accidently fall down on each other or something… neither has to say anything but the same thought crosses both of the people’s minds.
Anyways… I think it’s about perspective… it’s somehow strengthened… what are your thoughts?
Just as an issue of semiotics there must be something shared in order for people to interpret the projected images and sounds in what appears to be the same way. That we find the end of Titanic sad is based on certain habitual (i.e. not necessary but nonetheless perfectly real) interpretations. A French horn in a minor key simply is sad, that’s it. If we use it combined with an image of our hero dying then the audience will be sad.
James Cameron (who directed Titanitc, and Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and a whole bunch of other stuff) said that people go to see such movies to check the emotional plumbing is working. They want to laugh and cry but essentially remain safe in the darkened room with projected images on one wall. Effectively all they are being fed is their own tacit agreement to interpret signifiers in a particular way (or set of ways). The emotional content of a film is usually a self-fulfilling prophecy, and is based on shared habitual responses.
Now of course not all experience of cinema can be reduced to the above description but in general this holds.
Well hell, it can beyond that, definatly, even in movies that don’t really make you think too much. For instances, there’re alot of directors who’re familiar with the work of Joseph Campbell who can use a heroes journey to inspire us to be heroic in our own lives or use mythological archetypes to affect us on another (subconcious) level.