"Talk to Her" and Neurophenomenology

"Talk to Her" is a 2002 Spanish drama by Pedro Almodovar about Marco Zuluaga, a journalist/ travel writer, and Benigno Martin, a nurse, who form a friendship while looking after the women they love who are both in comas. However, Marco finds out that his girlfriend, Lydia, had gotten back together with her ex weeks before her accident and Benigno's obsession with his patient, Alica, grows stronger and more delusional.

Neurophenomenology refers to the neuroscientific explanations of embodied experiences. This means that actions, emotions and sensations of others are mapped onto the observer's own sensory- motor and viscero- motor system. This simply means that we mirror the emotions and actions of the characters we witness on screen, from their emotions to their blinking or breathing. This is done through the mirror neurons which are motor neurons that discharge when the motor act is observed.

Elsaesser and Hagener's "Cinema as Skin and Touch" states that "we take in films somatically, with our whole body, and we are affected by images even before cognitive information processing or unconscious identification addresses and envelops us on another level. " When watching "Talk to Her", we grow to like these characters. We imprint ourselves on Marco as he seems closed off at first, similar to us as we are unfamiliar with the characters, but he soon opens up to Benigno who is shown to be  kind, caring yet awkward. Through his interactions with Marco we open up to him. After Marco leaves to travel, we are left watching Benigno when we learn that Alicia is pregnant, and Benigno is the prime suspect. When we first hear the implications of rape, like Benigno, we stiffen with shock and tension. We hope it wasn't Benigno despite the fact that he is infatuated with her, to the point where he openly talks about wanting to marry her. He is finally accused of the rape and like Benigno, we sink with sorrow, mirroring him as he slides down his chair a little. We are disappointed with Benigno for what he has done and once Marco hears about Benigno's actions and imprisonment,  he mirrors us as he too shares our emotions.

"Departures" and the representation of Culture.

"Departures" is a 2008 drama by Japanese director Yojiro Takita that explores the representation of certain cultural traditions, more specifically the traditional work as a nokanshi  (Japanese ritual mortician) and how it is perceived by modern society. The film itself is loosely based on "Coffinman" a memoir by Shinmon Aoki.

Richard Dyer's work on stereotyping states that "A system of social- and stereotypes refer to what is, as it were, within and beyond the pale of normalcy". This is clearly seen in the film when the protagonist, Daigo Kobayashi (played by Masahero Motoki) answers to an advert for a high paying job simply called "Departures". He soon learns that he will be working as a ritual mortician which horrifies him at first but he soon learns to love and take pride in his work, using it as an art form similar to his years of playing cello. Despite him finding beauty in his morbid work, the small town in which he resides in, along with his wife, have grown to despise and shun him for practicing a near forgotten tradition involving death and see it as him taking advantage of the families of those who have departed. Society eventually learns to accept and respect Diago after he performs more and more funerals for them, proving wrong their mis-beliefs and prejudices.

Hall's work on representation states that "Representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture."  This is especially true considering a representation could change society's views on the matter of what has been represented. "Departures" helped change the views of people and managed to bring respect back to the tradition of nokanshi, making it popular and used more frequently for funerals, and even led to a sharp increase in people taking up the profession. The popularity of the film has lead to tours and attractions at sites connected to the film, and adaptations for various media such as mangas and a stage play.

"Character and Emotional response in the Cinema" and "Kingsman"

"Altered States: Character and Emotional response in the Cinema" by Murray Smith explores the theory that films can manipulate our emotions through responses such as empathy, emotional stimulation,  motor and effective mimicry and autonomic responses such as the startle response. I will be specifically looking at his model of "recognition, alignment, alliance" in which the spectator identifies with the character/s through 3 separate categories.

 "Kingsman: The Secret Service" is a 2014 action/science fiction film by Matthew Vaughn that follows the story of Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (played by Taron Egerton), a young man from a south London council estate who discovers that his late father was a spy working for the "Kingsman" secret service and is then recruited by Harry Hart (Colin Firth), A respected agent who worked with Eggsy's father.

We are first introduced to Harry who adopts the mentor role and father figure for Eggsy in  the future. We See Harry and Eggsy's father on the mission that costs him his life when he nobley  sacrifices himself. Harry is sent to give his condolences to his family, which is where we are introduced to a young Eggsy, who we then recognise as the hero of the story as Harry hands him the medal of valour his father earned for his sacrifice. This is shown  after his mother breaks into tears and the field of view shifts to Eggsy, bringing him into focus as Harry approaches him. The scene then transitions from Eggsy holding up the medal to observe it to the title. We later get a close up of the medal on a necklace as it pans out to show an older Eggsy living in poorer conditions with a negligible mother and an abusive step father. This leads us to align with him as we are visually glued to him and see how his life has turned out after the death of his father. After stealing a car and getting into a car chase with the police, we learn that despite being a hooligan, he still has the right morals as he would rather crash his car than run over a cat and then creates a distraction, allowing his friends to escape as he gets arrested. the spectator evaluates what kind of person Eggsy is and that leads to them creating an alliance with him.

In conclusion, we recognise Eggsy through the use of a jump cut to signify the passing of time and the use of focus to bring him into attention during his introduction, we align with him by learning how his life turned out after the death of his father and the abusive relationship his mother is in, and we form an alliance with him when  we evaluate what kind of man he is and how he turned out despite the unfortunate events that have happened to him.