Are movies really that important to humans?

By Leyan Zhang, 33734844

As an emotional medium, film not only carries ideas and memories but also plays an important role in cultural communication, becoming a window to record the times and social environment. It is this function that allows a movie to deeply touch the hearts of the audience. Some people are even willing to watch an old movie over and over again because it allows them to reconnect with a certain period of time or a certain emotion.

In “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Kundera, the author raises a thought-provoking question: If life can only be experienced once and cannot be repeated, is it meaningless? I think film might be able to answer this question.

image from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/07/psychologists-preventing-teen-suicide

Film is a media tool that cannot be ignored. It not only enriches our lives with different aesthetic forms, but also provides emotional and aesthetic experiences that transcend cognition and logic. Denson and Leyda (2016) state that “our existence is always tied to emotional and aesthetic flows that cannot be cognitively defined or captured.” The power of film is that it visualizes these flows, creating a personal Visual utopia helps us re-understand the meaning of life and the vastness of the world.（Brown, W., 2015, p113）

According to Manovich’s concept, film can actually help capture these flows to a certain extent (Manovich, L. 2001, p28). Movies allow us to have more connections with the world, especially the length of each movie, which is about two hours. During these two hours, you can escape from worldly disputes and avoid the pressure of reality, but Never lose your connection to the world. In the Taiwanese movie “Yi Yi”, the protagonist mentioned that after the invention of movies, human life has been extended at least three times compared to before.

A clip that specifically talks about movies extending life is at this link⬇️

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1x J411b7go/?share source=copy web

Shaviro mentioned in the article "Post-Cinematic Affect: "Privated emotion can never entirely separate itself from the affect from which it is derived. Emotion is representable and representative; but it also points beyond itself to an affect that works transpersonally and transversally, that is at once singular and common (Hardt and Negri 2004, 128-129), and that is irreducible to any” (Shaviro, 2010, p. 4)

Because of the special form brought about by film images, people with different languages ​​and backgrounds are connected to understand the same concept. For example, in David Lynch’s films, his noise aesthetic and unique jazz soundtrack embody this madness that everyone can perceive, even if you have no experience with it. There are also people who simply want to experience the unevenness of life. Francesco Casetti mentioned in his book “Seven Key Words for the Cinema to Come” that “”This audience did not go to Turbine Hall to experience what is usually called cinema, that is to say, a set of images and sounds that provide a particular representation of the world and a particular relationship with a spectator.”( Francesco, C., p18). Without movies, we would not know that there is such a kind of genius in the world, and what genius and beautiful ideas are contained in its mind.

Movies are of course important to human beings. Technically, they retain memories. The emotions filled in memories shape our lives, and our aesthetics in the process of conveying emotions continues to extend life.

Tags： #Week 2  #Manovich, L. #Shane Denson and Julia Leyda #post-cinemaaffect #yiyi

Author:

Leyan Zhang, 33734844

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References

Brown, W. (2015) Supercinema: Film-Philosophy for the Digital Age. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9780857459503.

Casetti, F. (n.d.) ‘Relocation’, in The Lumière Galaxy: Seven Key Words for the Cinema to Come. Columbia University Press. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/case17242.5 

Denson, S. and Leyda, J., 2016. ‘Perspectives on Post-Cinema: An Introduction’. In: Post-cinema: Theorizing 21st-century Film, pp.1-19. REFRAME Books 

Manovich, L 2001, The Language of New Media, MIT Press, Cambridge. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [26 November 2024]. 

Shaviro, S. (2010) ‘Post-Cinematic Affect: On Grace Jones, Boarding Gate and Southland Tales’, Film-Philosophy, [online] February 2010. Available at: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/film.2010.0001 

二流观众(er’liu’guan’zhong) (2020). 【Yiyi】After the invention of movies, human life has been extended at least three times compared to before. [online] Bilibili.com. Available at: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xJ411b7go/?share_source=copy_web [Accessed 27 Nov. 2024].

Freud, S. (1995). The Interpretation of Dreams. London: Hogarth Press.

Kundera, M. (1984). The unbearable lightness of being. London: Faber And Faber.

Miss.奇迹 （Miss. Miracle） (2023). Yesterday a 13-year-old girl jumped off a building here. Why are young people today so mentally ill? zhihu online community. [online] 19 Oct. Available at: 昨天我们这里一个十三岁的女孩跳楼了，为什么现在的年轻人心理承受能力如此差？ – Miss.奇迹的回答 – 知乎https://www.zhihu.com/question/619981295/answer/3214329657.

Pappas, S. (2023). More than 20% of Teens Have Seriously Considered suicide. Psychologists and Communities Can Help tackle the problem. [online] Apa.org. Available at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/07/psychologists-preventing-teen-suicide.

Screen 4 (2021). Yi Yi: The Cinema of Life. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6_TYUpgFr8 [Accessed 27 Nov. 2024].