Study of cinema by sociological methods

by: Parisa Zehtabian

Cinema is a modern media art, cinema in today’s world is an all-encompassing text and a media for conveying meanings and implications. Nowadays, the study of cinematic works is not just limited to the aesthetic study, and the use of methods are becoming common such as semiotics, narrative analysis of texts based on knowledge of various fields such as linguistics, sociology, and anthropology.
A cinematic work can be considered as an artwork and also be a powerful media. Media in general means something that transports content from one place to another in a broad way. So cinema is the content carrier. Cinema, especially social cinema, presents an image of one social class to another one and This means that it reveals various norms, values, and beliefs that are specific to a particular social group or class to other members of society and In this way, it causes dialogue and mutual understanding between these groups.
Cinema is an art that has advanced with the growth of technology and has settled in all fields of art and it is very powerful.
There I quote that says “If the cinema is with us and all the armies of the world are facing us, we will eventually win”
Cinema
Cinema plays an important role as a powerful and valuable tool in transmitting authentic and Islamic cultures. Extensive art that deals with all artistic, cultural, religious, political and …dimensions and by influencing the viewer, plays a significant role in cultivating them. Iranian filmmakers always try to produce their films based on Islamic and Iranian values.
Although the cinema had many ups and downs, it still retains its position and is popular among the general public and now cinema has a special place in the world.
The inherent capabilities of the media in cultural and political currents, their influence on public behaviors and tastes, and their position as the main and dominant source for presenting mental images of social realities, values, and norms are undeniable. All media play their role as intermediaries in social relations and they are able to communicate with people on a larger scale and for a longer period of time and overshadow the initial impact of school, family, religion.
The effect of the film on the audience
The content of the film can put the viewer in a state like artificial sleep, so that if the events shown in the film take place in a real environment, it will provoke milder reactions or maybe doesn’t have such a reactions. Of course, these effects are not the same for everyone. On the one hand, the position and characteristics of the spectator while watching the film, the technical aspect and the content of the film are dual factors that must be considered in the justification and the type of influence of the spectator. However, the film has the greatest
impact on children and adolescents and people with little knowledge. For a social filmmaker, after seeing society directly, there is no more valuable gift than the research, statistics and research provided by community experts.
On the other hand, if sociologists have done their job properly, that is, they have dealt with the real problems of society instead of dealing with the problems of views, they can observe that some of their episodes will be in the movie without any doubt and in a public way and form of drama is shown to the society. One of the problems of Iranian filmmakers is that they cannot connect with the academic community of humanities and their research results.
The impact of the film on children and the society
The intensity of the effect of films on children is due to the fact that for the child, the film is just reality. The child does not consider films as imaginative. For them, what they see is part of real life, especially when the content of the film is appealing to the child like movies that are full of defensive moves for boys. This is where the child becomes immersed in watching the film and so focused of movement and even the type of costume of the actor that he forgets his existence and plays a role along with the actor. He accepts the actor’s character and immerses himself in the role of an actor as if everything that happens to the actor has happened to him. Because of this, he get happy with the actor, he get sad, he remains anxious and disturbed in the events, and totally the child plays the film in his mind and sometimes in action.
Many times, adults also involuntarily imitate the physical movements of the actor under the influence of the film, and it is certain that as the content becomes more attractive, the depth of the film’s impact on people intensifies. A clear example of this claim is when the actor lights a cigarette in the film, followed by the viewer, who instinctively and involuntarily imitates the smoker by imitating the movements and behavior of the artist.
Studying cinema with a socio-cultural approach has a great contribution to our knowledge. . The danger of cinema’s distance from sociology is greater than other arts because cinema seeks a general audience and its economic and credit chance is with the masses, so the closer it is to the objectivity and moments of its audience, the more it interacts with the audience.
Unfortunately, cinema is still seen by people as a place of recreation and leisure. And we still have a long way to go to make it clear to the majority that the film and film industry is a kind of education and a kind of reflection of daily life, culture and society of the past, present and future.