Post-Cinema constructs a new structure of feeling where affect is the driving force of films. Post-cinematic affect is theorized by Shaviro (2010) who suggests affect is a kind of emotional and sensory experience connected to the contemporary media-saturised environments we are surrounded by. Whilst both emotion and affect are connected it’s important to establish the distinction between these two terms.

Affect is a general response which is unconscious, for example when you walk on a sunny day you feel generally happy whereas emotion is a complex response to an event for example you bump into your friend on the walk and you feel happy to see them because they are a dear friend to you. When you experience emotion there is context to that feeling.

Shaviro (2010) suggests contemporary films such as (Boarding Gate 2007) evoke affective responses rather than clear emotional or intellectual meaning in comparison to traditional plot development and character psychology in classical cinema. I feel like this gives room for the viewer to come to their own personal interpretation of what they have viewed. This is through the influence of their affective responses which are subjective to their personal structure of feelings.

The viewers personal structure of feelings are influenced from environments they have been exposed to therefore will be different person to person. How I interpret this, is by experiencing feelings that are not contextualized motivates the viewer to understand and contextualize why they experienced such feelings which helps develop their own personal and emotional understanding of a film they have viewed through their own structures of feeling.

This places more of an emphasis on the viewers understanding and experience rather than being influenced by the director’s experience of the story. Whilst this is a positive aspect not all viewers will go further and question the feelings they experienced. As a consequence, there is a risk of post-cinematic affect creating films which are experienced at a surface-level purely for experience rather to actively engage viewers with emotive ideas and messages.

Steven Shaviro, ‘Post-Cinematic Affect: On Grace Jones, Boarding Gate and Southland Tales’, Film Philosophy 14.1, 2010.

Boarding Gate. (2007) Directed by Olivier Assayas

Zara Bloom – 33751437