My initial question was inspired by a lively discussion I had with a
friend of mine at Locarno Film Festival way back in 1993. I argued at
the time that audiences at the end of the film - this, of course,
being a festival setting and as such somewhat untypical of the usual
viewing situation -, applaud as an act of imaginary communication
with the film's implied author (or voice); she totally rejected this
notion, film, in her view, not being communication at all (and
incomprehensible in communicational terms), but an EXPERIENCE. Her
view was that the applause is generated by the expressive release of
emotional EXCESS in the viewers...
I think I would now probably tend to take an intermediate position
(if that's possible) and to agree with Warren, Hunter, and Mike.
Hunter mentioned the social system one is a part of (including
filmmakers, industry, audience etc.). Warren points to the ceremonial
aspect. Let me throw in Durkheim, here: as in religion (with the
projection of a god, - or a filmmaker) which ultimately celebrates
not the transcendent, but the community (one is a part of).
Btw, what's the standing of communicational models of film (thinks of
the whole Metzian/semiological project) these days with the
contributors to this list? My (vague) impression is that explicitly
philosophical approaches to the medium rather tend to be
phenomenological/ontological.
Henry
Am 15.01.2007 um 20:20 schrieb Warren Buckland:
> Applauding at a film (whether the filmmakers and actors are present
> or not) involves a transformation of the viewing situation - away
> from spectacle and towards ceremony (as defined by Dayan and Katz:
> 1985). Ceremony involves a limited amount of physical interaction
> with the film, in opposition to the quiet voyeuristic distance
> normally associated with watching films at the cinema (caused by
> the spatial-temporal displacement between audience and what they
> see). The stage after ceremony, called festival, involves a deep
> physical interaction between audience and film, to the extent that
> the boundary between them breaks down. The "Rocky Horror"
> phenomenon borders on festival.
>
> Reference
> Dayan, Daniel, and Elihu Katz, "Electronic Ceremonies: Television
> Performs a Royal Wedding," On Signs, ed. Marshall Blonsky
> (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985): 16-32.
>
> Warren Buckland
>
> Latest book: "Directed by Steven Spielberg:
> Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster"
>
> Editor, New Review of Film and Television Studies:
> http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17400309.asp
>
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