You should refer to ONE or TWO module films in your answer. AND AT LEAST
TWO of the core module critical readings in detail.
8. “Films furthermore presuppose a cinematic space that is both physical and discursive,
one where film and spectator, cinema, and body encounter one another.” - Thomas
Elsaesser and Malte Hagener, Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses
With reference to AT LEAST ONE module film, discuss how cinema works as an affective
space, considering how image, sound and various effects in your selected film are used to
generate an affective experience.
Film Chosen: Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
In this essay, I will be analysing what seems to automatically happen between the
screen and the spectator when watching Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) as a result of
director Andrea Arnold’s successful usage of specific images, sound and various effects
throughout the film. Throughout, I will particularly be analysing the experience I gained
when watching the film and analyse how Arnold uses realism to create this connection in
order to prove that cinema works as an affective space through creating a personal experience
for the spectator. In Gregory Seigworth’s and Melissa Gregg words “Affect is found in those
intensities that pass body to body (human, nonhuman, part-body, and otherwise), in those
resonances that circulate about, between, and sometimes stick to bodies and worlds, and in
the very passages or variations between these intensities and resonances themselves” (1). I
feel that this passing from “body to body” (1) is what seems to happen when watching the
main protagonists Mia throughout the film through the empathy for her that Arnold creates.
The reason why I decided to choose the film Fish Tank is due to the realistic nature of the
film specifically Arnold’s portrayal of the journey Mia has within an environment that stops
TWO of the core module critical readings in detail.
8. “Films furthermore presuppose a cinematic space that is both physical and discursive,
one where film and spectator, cinema, and body encounter one another.” - Thomas
Elsaesser and Malte Hagener, Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses
With reference to AT LEAST ONE module film, discuss how cinema works as an affective
space, considering how image, sound and various effects in your selected film are used to
generate an affective experience.
Film Chosen: Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
In this essay, I will be analysing what seems to automatically happen between the
screen and the spectator when watching Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) as a result of
director Andrea Arnold’s successful usage of specific images, sound and various effects
throughout the film. Throughout, I will particularly be analysing the experience I gained
when watching the film and analyse how Arnold uses realism to create this connection in
order to prove that cinema works as an affective space through creating a personal experience
for the spectator. In Gregory Seigworth’s and Melissa Gregg words “Affect is found in those
intensities that pass body to body (human, nonhuman, part-body, and otherwise), in those
resonances that circulate about, between, and sometimes stick to bodies and worlds, and in
the very passages or variations between these intensities and resonances themselves” (1). I
feel that this passing from “body to body” (1) is what seems to happen when watching the
main protagonists Mia throughout the film through the empathy for her that Arnold creates.
The reason why I decided to choose the film Fish Tank is due to the realistic nature of the
film specifically Arnold’s portrayal of the journey Mia has within an environment that stops
