Pleasure on the Verge of Discomfort
Mirosław Przylipiak
miroslaw.przylipiak@ug.edu.plUniversity of Gdansk (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7552-8112
Abstract
The paper is a review of a book by Barbara Szczekała entitled Mind-game films. Gry z narracją i widzem [Mind-game Films: Games with Narrative and Spectator] (2019). The subject of the book is the current of “mind game films”, and the book is particularly concerned with the issue of the viewer’s reception of such films. Two modes of reception are confronted with each other. In the first one the emphasis is put on the complexity of mind-game films. The viewer’s task would be to straighten up this complexity, to complete a puzzle, to answer the riddles and solve mysteries. The reception is rational in nature, and the whole issue is put in the framework of cognitive psychology. This mode is juxtaposed to another one (the author opts for it), according to which the admirers of such films strive especially for embodied affects. Three such affects are described in detail: terror of identification, excess of accumulation and cognitive discomfort. Although these affects are rather unpleasant, the author insists that they attract the viewer to this kind of cinema.
Keywords:
mind-game films, narratology, affectReferences
Szczekała, B. (2018). Mind-game films. Gry z narracją i widzem. Łódź: Narodowe Centrum Kultury Filmowej.
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Authors
Mirosław Przylipiakmiroslaw.przylipiak@ug.edu.pl
University of Gdansk Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7552-8112
Professor of film and media studies at the University of Gdańsk, film critic, translator, documentary filmmaker. His main publications include the books Kino stylu zerowego [Zero Style Cinema] (1994, 2nd ed. 2016), Kino najnowsze [New Cinema] (1998), Poetyka kina dokumentalnego [Aesthetics of Documentary Cinema] (2000, 2nd ed. 2004), three books on American direct cinema, about 150 academic papers on various aspects of film and media, and numerous film reviews. He translated nearly 30 books, mostly from the fields of psychology and film, and some poetry. He also made several documentary films and series of television educational programmes. He was the founder and the first managing director of the Academic Educational Television of the University of Gdańsk. He has been awarded many grants and fellowships, from the Fulbright Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the Polish Ministry of Higher Education, among others. His main areas of interest are: theory and aesthetics of cinema, documentary film, American direct cinema, and Polish cinema.
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Copyright (c) 2020 Mirosław Przylipiak
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In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
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