Projections

A theory of comic timing in contemporary slapstick films based on the incongruity theory of humor is put forward. Comic timing is defined as perceived durational incongruity represented by two distinct types of rhythms: (1) in the standard perceived durational incongruity, the setup of the gag is durationally longer than the payoff; (2) in the non-standard perceived durational incongruity, extended duration functions as a self- referential tool for humor because it subverts the spectator's expectations for how long payoffs should be. The extended duration gag represents a metajoke about the nature of comic timing. Two additional factors of perceived durational incongruity are considered including when the setup and payoff are separated by a dramatic beat, which provides time for the spectator to understand the setup and make predictions about the outcome and when the setup is interrupted by the payoff, amounting to a non-threatening surprise that evokes humor.

This article focuses on film noir as a place of visual representation of character embodiment, including most prominently sweat, but also pain, exertion, and addiction. This embodiment provides a way in for the viewer, a connection based upon a shared felt affect that situates emotional engagement and understanding at a more basic level. Noir films use indicators of character embodiment as a communicative resource for viewers to understand character experience and narrative situations, especially those that are unfamiliar and thematically prominent in the canon, such as paranoia, fear, anxiety.

This article covers the neurobiological and psychological aspects of horror movies. Cinema audiences are not exposed to real threats, thus the movie should pass the brain's “reality check” systems and emotion regulation to engage the fear responses. This is achieved through vicarious simulation, proximity of threats, and unpredictability of the fearful events, and using universal sources of fear such as illness or isolation. Paradoxical appeal of horror movies stems from universal curiosity toward morbid and threatening subjects, mixing of emotions of fear and excitement in the brain, and the capability to learn about dangerous situations safely in the context of movies. These findings are summarized in a conceptual model for eliciting fear through cinema.

Since its introduction in 1976, the rhetoric surrounding Steadicam has emphasized the embodied nature of the technology. This article tests these claims against scholarly work on visual conventions as well as on embodiment and the related concept of Image Schemas as coined by Maarten Coëgnarts and Peter Kravanja. I will link both these approaches to the underlying idea of contingent human universals and how these undergird visual conventions. I will also turn to the field of evolutionary biology and epigenetic inheritance to add a (evolutionary) biological lens to these concepts. In doing so, I will argue for Steadicam's very special relationship with embodied camera movement and the specific new visual conventions it instigated.

David Bordwell, Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023, 512 pp., $32 (paperback), ISBN: 9780231206594.

Lucy Fischer. Emotion Pictures: Movies and Feelings. London and New York: Routledge, 2023, 198 pp., $128.00 (hardback), ISBN: 9781032037806.

Steffen Hven. Enacting the Worlds of Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022, 216 pp., $80.00 (hardback), ISBN: 9780197555101.

Timothy Corrigan, ed. Cinema, Media, & Human Flourishing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023, 200 pp., $32.99 (paperback), ISBN 9780197624197.