A Much-Needed Retrospective On Why Society Needs Cinema Therapy
A Closer Look at the Rewards of a Communal Film Experience
After a month of going to packed movie theaters in Los Angeles to see several films, I’ve overheard many conversations that went something like this:
Did you hear that guy laugh behind us?
Yes, it was amazing, and weird. He made us all laugh.
and
I felt horrible when that bomb went off in the movie.
I know, me too. You could feel the whole theater go silent. Someone sniffled in the corner. It made me want to cry. Why didn’t I bring tissues??
and
Hahaha. I couldn’t stop clawing at my seat.
It was great. So much fun! And when he did the running thing. Hahahaha. It was nice to see so many people out. It felt good.
Is it possible that we’ve been starving for this intense, sensory immersion? Not just with ourselves but also with others?
As the pandemic was just beginning, in May 2020, Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch wrote about why cinema must be a mass medium — “mass-intimacy” as he called it. “There are four key ways in which film attempts this – and manages it better than any other art form. Three of them occur irrespective of whether we are watching a film on an iPad or in an Imax. But the fourth – and possibly most crucial – is singular to seeing a film in a cinema,” said Murch.
Providing a way for people to resolve contradictions in themselves. Murch says that when a film “connects, it speaks to the head, the heart, and the gut,” the experience provides a social and spiritual function. We can have more empathy and understanding, thereby interacting with others in society in a healthier way. In a way, what he’s saying is that we learn through a vicarious experience. It sounds so non-entertaining, but we can still learn while being entertained.
According to a study from 2020, psychologist Ryan M. Niemiec studied how movies can help us be our best selves. He found that when people saw a movie about a character who made a moral choice, did something inspiring, or was admirable in some way, these actions and qualities inspired the viewer to be a better person. The study also found that the connection with emotions in the film, even under a difficult or tragic plot, allowed the viewer to connect with their same feelings — such as love, happiness, sadness — and be healing or motivating.
Even watching a sad movie can be helpful. Personally, I’d be worried if I were in a movie theater watching a sad film and no one was crying! Are we so deadened by small screens and lack of exercising our emotions that we would feel nothing? Releasing emotions while watching a film is healthy. It shows you have empathy, which is also a sign of emotional intelligence.
Photo courtesy Stockbusters Personalizing the film to tap into what it means for you. Murch says that a good film will not show everything and instead allow for audience’s to fill in the gap. It’s one reason why there are different interpretations. Another reason is that the subtext, the director choices, the actor choices, and the withheld and shown visuals all filter through our own perspectives, creating additional interpretations. When you watch a film, it gets in touch with your deepest and most intimate thinking. The film “Tár” was a great example of how thousands of people can see the same film, yet have a multitude of conclusions about its story.
Seeing another human so closely. As Murch put it, “Authorised voyeurism,” in the dark without interruptions. You get to see people’s private moments closeup, or at least blown up on the big screen. It’s incredibly impactful. Cathartic for the audience. We know these are actors on screen, but good actors know how to render those private moments as real. (And believe me, being an actor myself, they are real. Even after all the manufacturing to get you there for the performance, leaving a part of you in the camera — or all of you — makes the best work.) The film “Parasite” is an excellent example of cinematic voyeurism, following an impoverished family as its members do the unthinkable and take over a wealthy household. As the Director Bong Joon-ho said in an interview about the film, “As you know, in Hitchcock's “Rear Window,” he really just explores the secret, the pleasure of just voyeurism, which I think is inevitably an essential part of cinema as a medium.”
Keon-kyo (Yeo-jeong Jo) in "Parasite" (Courtesy of NEON + CJ Entertainment) Tell me that this upcoming Netflix film “Maestro” starring Carey Mulligan & Bradley Cooper shouldn’t be seen as a wide release, U.S. and internationally, over a long window. It would be a travesty to stick it on a Netflix small screen so soon after opening. It’s filled with emotion and film mastery that can only be truly felt in a darkened theater with others. I’m sure that I’ll be seeing it at a screening in L.A. with a few hundred very engaged artists — we’ll laugh, we’ll cry, I can already see that in the trailer. It will be like when I saw “Les Misérables” at the DGA theater screening, and everyone was crying buckets; I’ll never forget it. But will the rest of the world have such a transformative experience if it’s left to the small screen?
Being with strangers as a risk and a reward. Murch concludes, almost premonition-like, with the notion of coming together with strangers to watch a film as having both risk and reward. The risk is that you are sitting with people you don’t know, but the reward is that the group, as the movie starts, functions as a collective. This provides a communal experience that cannot be found at home. “In the best circumstances, that experience can paradoxically expand our consciousness and awareness of our commonality, sharpening our senses in the mass intimacy of the darkened theatre,” says Murch.
Quentin Tarantino makes a great case for cinema, strangers, and being part of a collective in this clip:
But I believe the deep human need to leave the isolation of home and gather in the fire-lit dark with like-minded others will provide an irresistible channel to guide the reopening of cinemas – and even, perhaps, their reinvention. — Walter Murch
And, here we are.
Additional reading:
Together in the dark: what we miss about going to the movies TheGuardian.com Walter Murch’s essay
Tár Is the Most-Talked-About Movie of the Year. So Why Is Everyone Talking About It All Wrong? Slate.com A good example of the debate that ensued about Tár’s ending.
If you cry while watching movies, it is probably a sign of your emotional strength TheConversation.com More on how expressing your emotions while watching a film is healthy.