Moving Viewers: American Film and the Spectator's Experience

by Carl Plantinga

Everyone knows the thrill of being transported by a film, but what is it that makes movie watching such a compelling emotional experience? In Moving Viewers, Carl Plantinga explores this question and the implications of its answer for aesthetics, the psychology of spectatorship, and the place of movies in culture. Through an in-depth discussion of mainstream Hollywood films, Plantinga investigates what he terms "the paradox of negative emotion" and the function of mainstream narratives as ritualistic fantasies. He describes the sensual nature of the movies and shows how film emotions are often elicited for rhetorical purposes. He uses cognitive science and philosophical aesthetics to demonstrate why cinema may deliver a similar emotional charge for diverse audiences.

Genres: Film

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Carl Plantinga is Professor of Film Studies at Calvin College. He is the author of Rhetoric and Representation in Non-Fiction Film and the coeditor of Passionate Views: Film, Cognition, and Emotion.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ACTUALLY READ THIS FOR CLASS AND I LEARNED A LOT!!!!!! Post structuralism final boss

[Steen Ledet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book on affect and emotions, Plantinga's arguments are too cognitive for my liking. Although some good discussions of films come up, the constant prioritization of reason as an integral part of affect and emotion, seems limited to me and not congruent with other affect studies. While Plantinga has read deeply and widely on the emotions, there is far too little engagement with the affects.