What happens in the viewer's mind when he watches a film ? How was the cinema audience formed? And what characteristics did the Italian audience have? What differentiates an Italian film from an American one? Pierre Sorlin explains all this in his book " Introduction to a Sociology of Cinema ."
To see or to be seen?
“ We have come to see the film because people are talking about it, because we must have seen it, because it features this or that character, because we need to verify-contradict-discuss the judgments that are already being made, because we will find a topic of conversation, because we are fed up with being the ones who don't dare say anything about it (…). Attending – or not attending – a show: the choice, at times, is more important than the object we are trying to see; it reveals interests, an attitude, relationships with the environment, which cannot be summed up in the very simple act of taking a ticket and sitting down; and yet it is precisely from this object that other networks are spread, that new relationships are formed .” (Sorlin, 1974)
Social differentiation
In the early 900s, cinema was seen by people as a kind of ritual . Ritual is seen as an act or set of acts that a group performs following codified norms. Sociology studies these groups and the activities they engage in. The sociology of film, on the other hand, tends to study the debate about the metropolis and its forms. In this context, cinema has scaled down the mechanisms of social differentiation , reducing the differences between social classes, because everyone is united and approaches this new medium in the same way. From a medium, it becomes a process, and rather than analyzing it as a single object, it must be analyzed based on the effects it has on society. Cinema has been influenced by popular illustration, photography , and comics, but at the same time, it contaminates society, the spirit, and our routines. If cinema is the set of processes that have led to social change, and sociology studies this, the relationship between cinema and sociology is necessary.
Barbara Petrano
Sociology taught me how to think, and writing helps me express my ideas. I have a degree in Digital Cultures and Communications and am passionate about digital marketing.
