Nerves in Patterns on a Screen: An Introduction to Film Studies

Movies offer us images (and usually sounds) that “thr[ow our] nerves in patterns on a screen” (Eliot). In other words, they express the neurological hyperactivity of modern subjects. Films are affect machines, in this respect. Each has its own heartbeat (narrative highs and lows), dramatic expansions and contractions (montage), and changing patterns and light (cinematography). Viewers engage with these affect machines viscerally, such that we are like Charlie Chaplin who dives into the mach...