I'm not sure how this works or where to leave a message but I just wanted to thank the organisers and speakers for last Saturday's event. I am looking forward to the next one. I was too shy to say anything at the time but I wondered if anyone else thought about these points - that the clip of Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain was satirised by Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange, an interesting irony considering the very polarised emotions evoked. Also, my viewing of A Clockwork Orange was forever changed when I learned that the most shocking part of the film was based on an experience of Burgess and his wife during a blackout in 1943: drunken American soldiers gone AWOL invaded their home, attacked Burgess and gang-raped his wife. Since learning this I have not been able to watch the film again and I wonder how others have coped emotionally with this information. I would be very interested to hear other people's views whether you attended on Saturday or not. Thanks again for a fantastic two hours. Very best wishes, Deborah

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jamesanslow

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Notes from the Couch 1

Category: General Discussion

May 3 2009, 4:55 AM EDT by jamesanslow

PaulSutton

Public / private cinema: micro-screens and emotion

EMOTIONAL WORK OF CINEMA

Category: General Discussion

Apr 5 2009, 8:14 AM EDT by RachelShattockDawson

Thread started: Apr 5 2009, 3:23 AM EDT Watch

There is an interesting editorial in the May 09 issue of Sight and Sound which picks up on this question of private cinema but in the context of the micro-screen of the ipod, etc. I had been struck by the increasing ubiquity of various kinds of digital devices, all of which enable commuters to watch film and television as they journey to and from work. What I find especially interesting is not only the way that this repositions cinema but how it also represents a private mode of viewing but in a public space. Nick James, in Sight and Sound, wonders whether a 'third aesthetic' might be developed for these micro-screens that suits both the technical limitations of these tiny screens but also 'the solipsist, the lone viewer' (Sight and Sound, 19.5, 5). I wonder what the emotional work of cinema is in these kind of viewing contexts: what kinds of emotional experiences occur for the spectator, what motivates this type of private/public spectatorship, etc. At one level the micro-screen begins to function much like the novel, a connection that James makes in his editorial by citing Bazin, writing on the novel: 'its intimate effect on the isolated reader is not the same as that of a film on the crowd in a darkened cinema' (ibid). I have been teaching a module this term entitled 'Forms of Cinema', which explored two key questions: what is cinema? where is cinema? both of which are central to the rise of the micro-screen...

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geofffascia

Cinema as a public as opposed to private event

EMOTIONAL WORK OF CINEMA

Category: General Discussion

Apr 5 2009, 3:25 AM EDT by PaulSutton

Thread started: Mar 28 2009, 6:31 AM EDT Watch

Two unlikely moments in my cinema-going years have stuck with me, which affirmed more than anything the power of the collective cinema-going experience. Both concerned going to see re-releases on the big screen in sold-out cinemas. I had the pleasure of seeing The Exorcist for the first time during its cinema re-release in 2000 - there was one moment in particular when a very large amount of tension was released at the end of a scene, causing the entire crowd to visibly jump in their seats, then audibly breathe a sigh of relief. The whole audience's emotions were in sync and felt to be magnified by our collective experiencing of them. Similarly, three years previously I saw Star Wars (not for the first time) on the opening night of its 20th anniversary re-release. As the end credits rolled, spontaneous applause began rippling through the crowd. Despite the film-makers not being present at that particular small-town Odeon, it became clear that the film had a powerful effect and brought back memories for many of us ... and the heightened experience sharing it together was confirmed to all.