CONTEMPORARY FILM THEORY: THE COGNITIVIST APPROACH
AFFECT, COGNITION AND THE POWER OF MOVIES
»Movies« — what film scholars think of
as fiction films of the classical Hollywood paradigm —
enjoy widespread popularity, crossing national ethnic,
gender, class, and educational boundaries. This essay looks
at the power of movies from the perspective of cognitive-affective
psychology. This perspective is proposed as a less exotic,
and alternative approach to the predominant Marxist and
psychoanalytic accounts of the power of movies. According
to psychoanalytic theory, unconscious wishes and instinctual
drives fuel spectatorship. Each of the elements of film,
from the moving image to centered framing to editing structures
to narrative closure, was believed to participate in the
fulfillment of these drives, and to insulate the consciousness
from their potential discovery.
However, even staunch proponents
of psychoanalysis must admit that some important elements
of film spectatorship occur at the conscious level. Discussing
the power of movies from the more cognitive position, e.g.
Carroll claims that the three characteristics of cinema
— moving photographs, erotetic narration, and variable
framing — contribute to the special clarity of movies,
making them accessible to »mass, untutored« audiences.
This clarity, in turn, »is the basis of our intense response
to and engagement with movies«. These movies are intense
in part because they foster an impression of coherence
far greater then that which we experience in everyday life
(hyper-coherency). Yet this does not fully account for
their power. Is this the only intrinsic characteristic
that gives movies their power, and is this power more than
a historical product of advertising and other economic
practices carried out by the Hollywood film industry? While
not negating the last question, one must still explain
why so many diverse audiences all over the world eagerly
seek out movies.
The very accessibility of a movie depends
on its being understood on a basic level by its audience.
Movie attendance requires an active, goal-oriented effort,
which has to be motivated by the intrinsic fit between
human perceptual and cognitive capabilities and the formal
nature of movies. Still, such a cognitive account cannot
fully explain the power of movies, since it tends to leave
out the affective side. Movies have the potential to excite
powerful affective experiences in their audiences which
relate to the central preoccupations of our lives. Many
factors need to be considered to fully account for the
emotional power of movies, but one is especially important
— the specific representation and evocation of emotion-laden
»narrative paradigm scenarios« which evoke particular forms
of spectator identification and empathy with the characters.
In movies, conventional narrative structures manipulate
audience identification, and through a familiar and rapidly
changing series of emotional situations related to the
goals of the characters(s), the audience affective response
as well. Movies affect us because, through identification
evoked by narrative paradigm scenarios, they immerse us
in a vicarious reality that is not only more coherent than
our own, but one that offers us an emotionally dramatic
experience with little risk, no requirement for action
on our part and no direct consequences.
It may even be
possible that the use of our cognitive and affective faculties
might have some sort of adaptive value for us. (Section
titles: Psychoanalysis and the Power of Movies; A Cognitive
Account of the Power of Movies; Biology and/or Culture?;
Power without Affect?; Emotional Power in a Cognitive Context;
Identification; Narrative Paradigm Scenarios and Classical
Form; A Cognitive/ Affective Theory of Film Spectatorship).
Carl Plantiga |
