Sensuous cinema.

Abstract

The body is not a new subject within contemporary film spectatorship theory. However, current theories on embodied spectatorship are still having trouble regarding the body’s sensuous quality while considering its materiality. This project approaches this problem by considering at least three bodies involved in cinematic experiences: the body of cinema, the body in cinema, and the body at cinema. Thinking about the bodies through/with affect, bodies involved in cinema undergo processes of formation that ensure their dynamism and fluidity. At its heart, this project asks how we can regard the bodies involved in cinematic experiences based on what they do, more than what they say. Perhaps then, the bodies speak up for themselves within dominant discourses of narrative film that are based on signification, to produce a new and unexpected developments in the conversation surrounding the body, senses and affect within cinematic spectatorship theory.