Release:
2024. Vol. 10. № 4 (40)About the authors:
Elena V. Andrianova, Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of General and Economic Sociology, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; Senior Researcher at the West Siberian Branch of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Tyumen, Russia; e.v.andrianova@utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7769-9206Abstract:
This article describes the current state of the sociology of film theory, organically integrated into the current filmmaking expressive means and practices. The focus of research is directed at the formulation and authorial solution of the problem of audience’s existential sensitivity and related practices, which represent a unique value of both their receptivity and vulnerability in connection with their personal experiences of film consumption. Currently, two new processes are going on simultaneously in global and Russian social science: firstly, the broadening subject-matter of film sociology, embedded in the public life; secondly, existential sociology returning to the issues of choosing authentic existence and, thus, obtaining new impetus. The article presents the theoretical deployment of the theory of existence as one of the newest approaches in existential and social research; it reveals the scientific novelty of its theoretical part, based on the interpretation of meetings between cinema and the viewer. Based on a representative survey of visitors to Tyumen cinemas (2,502 people; spring 2024); the authors have identified existential narratives of media and viewers and analyzed groups of similar films listed in the IMDb (Internet Movie Database), the world’s largest movie database, and in Kinopoisk. The article aims to clarify the existential assessments of film audiences’ practices. Th methods include parallel procedures of the sociology of cinema analysis, modern theories of existence, and the empiricists involved. The existential dimension of the meanings and significance of filmmaking marks a conceptual breakthrough in answering the fundamental question: “How exactly does the social construction of modern cinema represent the areas of being and existence of the world and the individual?”. The most popular films are the ones which refer to familiar plots and favorite characters, and which reinterpret old stories by the new film industry, thus, sacrificing the semantic fullness and content of the cinema in favor of new modern aesthetic filmmaking technologies.References:
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