Filmic immersion : an analysis of technique and perspective in contemporary cinema

Abstract

This work discusses filmic immersion in light of the three types of immersion distinguished by the theorist Marie-Laure Ryan in Narrative as Virtual Reality (2001): temporal immersion, spatial immersion, and emotional immersion, with a chapter devoted to each topic. Seven filmic texts serve as case studies to support the arguments, namely: American Beauty (Mendes 1999), Black Swan (Aronofsky 2010), Big Fish (Burton 2003), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Fincher 2008), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry 2004), Shutter Island (Scorsese 2010), and A Matter of Life and Death (Powell 1945). The first chapter introduces the specific theories and the terminology applied throughout the study, key among which are Peter Verstraten’s application of focalisation and filmic narration, and Gerard Genette’s levels of narration. The second chapter concerns emotional immersion and how this can be both effected and affected by cinematography. The third chapter discusses spatial immersion and the various roles played by the screen space in advancing the plot and psychologically anchoring the viewer in the diegetic world, while the fourth chapter analyses the effect of temporal immersion and discusses the cognitive processes affected while watching a film. The concluding movement argues that filmic immersion results from an in imbalance in the cognitive processes outlined in Chapter Four, and proposes that an effective analysis of the process requires a further type of immersion – sensory immersion – be distinguished.