This research has as object of study the culture of environmental catastrophe. This is the analysis of the effects that disaster movies have on people, considering the social interactions between spectators of film narratives of environmental catastrophes, about fear and insecurity about the possibility of planetary extinction (partial or total). The research approach is based on social constructionism. The method of the research adopted was the relational of the descriptive-interpretative type. Eighty-one individuals aged between six and sixty-five years of different schooling and sex participated in this study. The group device is used, focusing on the emotions and feelings manifested in the film experiences with the disaster films (1992- 2015). The main instruments of data collection were informal conversations, field diary, direct observation and audio recording of interactions among participants. The film experience, in the reception and audience of catastrophic films, produces specific effects on the conduct of the participants. Five effects are highlighted: (a) generates emotional reaction; (b) produces conscious awareness; (c) elicits unilateral direct communication through physical contact; (d) produces empathic disposition; (e) generates, produces and elicits symbolic content. However, it was observed that not all the participants demonstrated typical reactions to the phenomenon of referential-emotive micronarration, namely, fright reaction, followed by speech acts, direct reflex physical contact with other participants and laughing reaction. It was noticed that the different reactions to the products of the film industry, in the case of catastrophes, explain the particularity and the singularity of practical social life, thus avoiding the universalist approach in which social actors do not reflect on what they do, when they do. On the other hand, the symbolic dimensions of cognition, when not properly situated in the course of the debate on the filmic experience, produce a reduction effect of the mental operations, elaborated by the agents themselves with respect to the disaster films. The circulation (or explicit indication) among research participants of the need for comment on two different discursive plans was perceived: (a) reactive plans (of sensory-perceptive sensitivity) aimed at activation and saturation, in which emotion and the feeling predominates; (b) action plans (active base) focused on the decision to engage and participate directly or indirectly in the search for involvement with issues pertaining to nature, man and the possibilities of extinction of life on the planet. We conclude that the fear and insecurity of planetary extinction (partial or total), conveyed by the disaster films brings to the center of the debate the emotions and the feelings as an in separate part of the environmental issues and the variety of behaviors observed in contemporary social practices. / Esta pesquisa tem como objeto de estudo a cultura da catástrofe ambiental. Trata-se da análise dos efeitos que os filmes-desastres exercem nas pessoas considerando as interações sociais ocorridas entre os espectadores de narrativas fílmicas de catástrofes ambientais, quanto ao medo e a insegurança ante as possibilidades de extinção planetária (parcial ou total). A abordagem da pesquisa respalda-se no construcionismo social. O método da pesquisa adotado foi o relacional do tipo descritivo-interpretativo. Participaram deste estudo oitenta e um indivíduos com idades entre seis e sessenta e cinco anos de diferentes escolaridade e sexo. Utilizou-se o dispositivo grupal, tendo como foco as emoções e sentimentos manifestados nas experiências fílmicas com os filmes-desastre (1992-2015). Os principais instrumentos de coleta de dados foram as conversas informais, diário de campo, observação direta e registro em áudio das interações ocorridas entre os participantes. Os resultados explicitam que os participantes demonstraram interagir de maneira ativa, não escapista, com os quadros ou cenas fílmicas, compostas com maior apelo da linguagem catastrófica. A experiência fílmica, na recepção e audiência de filmes-catástrofe, produz efeitos específicos sobre a conduta dos participantes. Destacam-se cinco efeitos: (a) gera reação emotiva; (b) produz percepção consciente; (c) elicia comunicação direta unilateral por contato físico; (d) produz disposição empática; (e) gera, produz e elicia conteúdo simbólico. No entanto, observou-se que nem todos os participantes demonstraram reações típicas ao fenômeno da micronarração referencial-emotiva, a saber, reação-susto, seguida de atos de fala, contato físico direto reflexo com outros participantes e reação-risível. Percebeu-se que as diferentes reações aos produtos da indústria cinematográfica, no caso dos filmes-catástrofes, explicitam a particularidade e a singularidade da vida social prática, evitando assim, a abordagem universalista, na qual os atores sociais não refletem sobre o que fazem, quando fazem. Por outro lado, as dimensões simbólicas da cognição, quando não devidamente situadas no decorrer do debate sobre a experiência fílmica, produzem efeito redutor das operações mentais, elaboradas pelos próprios agentes a respeito dos filmes-desastre. Percebeu-se a circulação (ou indicação explícita), entre participantes da pesquisa, da necessidade de comentários em dois diferentes planos discursivos: (a) planos reativos (de sensibilidade sensório-perceptiva) voltados à ativação e a saturação, nos quais a emoção e o sentimento predominam; (b) planos de ação (de base ativa) voltados à decisão de engajamento e participação direta ou indireta na busca de envolvimento com as questões pertinentes à natureza, ao homem e as possibilidades de extinção da vida no planeta. Concluímos que o medo e a insegurança de extinção planetária (parcial ou total), veiculados pelos filmesdesastre traz ao centro do debate as emoções e os sentimentos como parte indissociada das questões ambientais e da variedade de comportamentos observados nas práticas sociais contemporâneas. / São Cristóvão, SE

Cette étude s’inspire de questionnements soulevés, dans le cadre de leur recherche, par deux spécialistes du cinéma. Une première piste de recherche concerne l’histoire du cinéma des premiers temps et les sources documentaires, que l’historien Jan Olsson a défini comme un « domaine discursif » (“discursive domaine”) à part entière. Une deuxième piste de recherche s’inspire d’une remarque du philosophe et théoricien Murray Smith à propos de la manière dont les spectateurs se représentent mentalement les films qu’ils ont vus comme un domaine de la recherche cinématographique inexploré (“unchartered territory”). Cette thèse se concentre sur la « conscience cinématographique », c’est-à-dire sur la capacité du spectateur à se représenter mentalement un objet filmique ou à penser cinématographiquement. Cette formulation désigne des phénomènes particuliers. Historiquement, cette « conscience » est une forme de « sensibilisation au cinéma » (« movement of consciousness »), phénomène dont on peut observer les effets dans les textes consacrés au cinéma dans les années 1907-1912. Cette « sensibilisation » se manifeste par un intérêt grandissant pour les films, par l’invention de termes et de notions permettant de parler de cinéma, par des études spécialisées, portant sur le spectatorat ou la critique, montrant que les contemporains avaient conscience de cette « sensibilisation » (« self consciousness »). Ce questionnement de fond sur les sources documentaires, en tant qu’elles sont le révélateur d’une « conscience cinématographique », a une implication historiographique et méthodologique importante. L’apparente naïveté des sources d’époque a conduit certains historiens à décrire les spectateurs de l’époque comme étant, eux aussi, naïfs. Or, en réalité, la perception des phénomènes filmiques par les contemporains était plus complexe et nuancée que ce que les sources ne laissent le dire. Cette approche, qui porte sur les mentalités de l’époque et l’impact du cinéma sur les spectateurs, conduit à chercher les traces de cette « sensibilisation » dans les textes d’époque, à prendre compte des champs lexicaux et de leur évolution dans le temps. Elle permet également, pour l’historien, de tenir compte de la subjectivité des textes d’époque plutôt que de ne s’attacher qu’à des sources objectives ou des témoignages. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, la formulation « conscience cinématographique », dont l’occurrence n’est pas rare dans la littérature consacrée à l’histoire du cinéma, désigne cette partie de la conscience qui est façonnée par le cinéma. Cette conscience a plusieurs fonctions qui correspondent, chacune, à diverses catégories de conscience cinématographique. Il s’agit de la « sensibilité à l’esthétique du film », la « sensibilité à la technicité du film », la « sensibilité à la culture cinématographique », la « sensibilité au cinéma en tant qu’objet de pensée » ainsi que d’autres éléments permettant à la conscience de s’exercer (le lieu de la mémoire où reposent les souvenirs de films, les moments de cinéma associés à une identité personnelle, la faculté d’être conscient de sa propre conscience filmique et la conscience filmique subjective, forme de conscience et de sensibilité liée à une grande connaissance du cinéma. Ces diverses catégories de « sensibilité » à la chose cinématographique forment un vaste champ d’étude permettant de prendre la mesure de la transformation des mentalités et de cartographier le territoire inexploré évoqué par Murray Smith. Chacune de ces catégories représente un domaine de recherche spécifique, avec ses questionnements et ses enjeux propres, mais prend place dans un champ plus vaste, celui de « conscience cinématographique ». Quand cette approche s’applique aux sources documentaires portant spécifiquement sur le cinéma et son évolution, il est possible de voir à quel point le cinéma transforme les mentalités. / This thesis attempts to follow through on two “calls for further research” from recognized film scholars. One line of research centers on early cinema and especially on early American film publications (from 1906 to 1913), which Jan Olsson has defined as a “discursive domain calling for analysis as a phenomenon in its own right,” as opposed to only being “source material” film historians use for writing about early cinema. Another line of research concerns the “relationship between consciousness and film” that Murray Smith argues is an “unchartered territory” in film studies. In this thesis, this relationship between “consciousness and film” is defined from the perspective of ‘film consciousness’, which is a formulation with several functions. In some contexts, it refers to a “movement of consciousness” that appears in early film publications over the course of several years (between 1907 and 1912) manifested in a growing recognition of the constructed, aesthetic nature of film, changes in terminologies for naming and defining the object of cinema, in particular activities showing an appreciation of the contextual meaning of films, and in self-consciousness, such as in the study of audiences and meta-criticism. These parallel lines of research have an important scientific and methodological implication, in that early film publications are sometimes implicitly seen as displaying a “naïve consciousness” that is transposable onto early spectators broadly. A “film consciousness” approach recognizes a more complex consciousness that is revealed in subtle changes in language-use and behaviour over a period of time. It also allows for the study of the subjectivity of the writers as well, which is often revealed indirectly to the film historian, as opposed to explicit descriptions of subjective film experience. The formulation ‘film consciousness’ – which is occasionally used in film discourse, though usually without an institutional definition – is also regarded in this thesis as presenting its own ontological nature in the way it brings two semantic fields (“consciousness” and “film”) into relation. From this formulation, several “categories of film consciousness” are constructed. These include “film aesthetic awareness,” “film production awareness,” “film culture awareness,” “ways of existing towards film,” and several “entities of consciousness” (an imagined place in consciousness assumed to contain past film experiences, conscious phenomena derived from film experiences that are seen as bound to personal identity, a faculty that determines the way reality is engaged with, and a particular kind of conscious experience, defined as “subjective film consciousness.”) These categories of film consciousness collectively constitute an imagined “field of film consciousness” that serves to conceptualize the “unchartered territory” Murray Smith defines. Each category represents an individual area of research with concomitant questions and criteria that nevertheless exist on a continuum that the key term ‘film consciousness’ brings into constant rhetorical relation. When this field is applied to a set of film-related data, such as early film discourse, a set of connections between different regions of film consciousness emerges, thus allowing for the description of film consciousness at various levels.

Over the last decades, film theories with their focus on the mere audiovisual quality of cinema have been questioned by film scholars with a phenomenological interest. According to these critical approaches, the film experience cannot be understood through a mere involvement of the eye (and the ear). In this context, to disregard the significance of a multisensory attachment to the film results in the consideration of relationship between the film and the viewer to be a dominating one. This dissertation examines this multisensory attachment and aims to define the film experience as an embodied relationship between the film and the viewer by means of a formal analysis of the Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s early films. Throughout the dissertation, it is argued that Ceylan encourages his viewer in various forms to have a more sensual and immediate experience of his films rather than to compel them to adhere to symbols and abstractions through a kind of intellectual effort – an intellectual effort that would damage the “sensuous” attachment between the film and the viewer.

This essay is a qualitative study that analyzes how close-ups and point of view in relation to the narrative affect the viewer emotionally in the TV show The Last of Us episode 8. It examines the visualization of the character Ellie’s emotions and analyzes its emotional effect on the viewer. The theories applied explain the human ability to feel empathy and social cognition, film’s ability to evoke emotion and the concept of focalization. The theories also define the terms: narrative, point of view and close-ups. Five scenes were chosen and each scene was analyzed closely looking at facial expressions, point of view, camera movement, angles and more. Since this is a qualitative study it is based on subjective interpretations and assumptions which should be taken into account. However emotions are exceedingly subjective and a quantitative study would therefore be unmotivated.  The results suggest that assumptions can be made in how close-ups and point of view affect the viewer emotionally. When taken narrative into account, close-ups and point of view visualized the character Ellie’s emotions. These two techniques clarified and reinforced the character’s emotional state which, through the human ability to feel social cognition and empathy, transferred and/or influenced the viewer’s emotions.