Steven Shaviro explores how cinema reflects and engages with culture in the 21st Century. He focuses on the rise of digital technologies, new forms of audiovisual media, and neo-liberal capitalism, which has transformed both cinematic form and the way the viewer experiences films. 

Shaviro explains the concept of ‘post-cinematic affect’, meaning how digital media creates immersive emotional and sensory experiences, in addition to narrative plots or representing reality (Shaviro, 2010). This shift reflects broader cultural changes in the digital age, where media transitioned from solely narrative focus and representation to immediacy, aesthetics, and affect. 

Shaviro’s distinction between ‘emotion’ and ‘affect’ is that emotion is an affect that has been personalised. Affect precedes subjectivity, perception, consciousness, and narrative. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) Official Trailer

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Kwan and Scheinert, 2022) displays this concept by prioritising visual and emotional engagement rather than traditional narrative coherence. The film’s core is primarily centred on the protagonist, Evenlyn’s relationship with her daughter, the film’s antagonist. Their intergenerational conflict all comes to a climax in the final act of the film; the overwhelming spectacle heightens the emotional stakes and the affect.

The film’s non-linear fragmented narrative framework, presented through montage techniques, which rapidly transitions between multiple storylines, sensory overload, and thematic explorations of identity and capitalism, reflects Shaviro’s notions of post-cinematic affect and the evolution of cinema in the digital age. Everything Everywhere All at Once uses various film styles and genres to express the post-cinematic affect and aesthetics. He wants to account for the changes in digital media to display a sense of what living in the 21st Century contemporary society feels like.

The “Multiverse” Scene shows Evelyn and the chaos of the infinite universes. This scene uses a long, complex montage and different media forms to encapsulate the post-cinematic affect.

References: 

Steven, S.  (2010) ‘Post-Cinematic Affect: On Grace Jones, Boarding Gate and Southland Tales’. Winchester; Washington: O Books. [Accessed 22 Oct. 2024]

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