Cinesexuality is a concept in film philosophy by

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

film theorist

Patricia MacCormack Patricia MacCormack is an Australian scholar who lives and works in London, England. Currently she is Professor of Continental Philosophy in English and Media at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. She has published extensively on philosophe ...

which attempts to explain why people sometimes feel an intense attraction towards film.

Origins

MacCormack coined the term and used it as the title of her 2008 essay to describe her philosophical speculation about film, which is similar in some respects to the

poststructuralist Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critique ...

philosophy of desire by contemporary philosophers

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

and

Félix Guattari Pierre-Félix Guattari ( , ; 30 April 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and ecosophy with Arne Næss, ...

Meaning

While the term is somewhat vague, she uses it to describe why there is a "desire which flows through all who want cinema as a lover," Joanna McIntyre, June 25, 2014, Culture and the Media
Cinema Studies: Cinesexuality by Patricia McCormack
, Retrieved Aug. 18, 2014, "...Cinesexuality is the desire which flows through all who want cinema as a lover. It knows no gender, no sexuality, no form, and no function. It describes a position of supplication before an unresponsive element. ... we are all already cinesexual’ " why film can feel

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...

, whether such intense feelings may be explained by a psychic model of "tension and release," Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 4, 2012, DOI:10.1080/10304312.2012.698032, Adrian Martina, pages 519-528
A theory of agitation, or: Getting off in the cinema
Retrieved Aug. 18, 2014, "... this essay proceeds to ask: is there a model of tension and release,... structure of psychic agitation,...." and why there is this "physical pleasure of cinema" which sometimes manifests itself in an "erotic and subversive" way.

Analysis

Catherine Grant suggested that MacCormack has essentially reformulated the term

cinephilia Cinephilia (; also cinemaphilia or filmophilia) is the term used to refer to a passionate interest in films, film theory, and film criticism. The term is a portmanteau of the words cinema and philia, one of the four ancient Greek words for love. ...

, a term in

film criticism Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Journalism, journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-m ...

which denotes passionate interest in film. Catherine Grant (book reviewer), (review of: Patricia MacCormack's Cinesexuality, published 23 July 2008), 18 DECEMBER 2008, Times Higher Education
Cinesexuality: Encounters with a big screen lover -- Catherine Grant explores spectators' desire for the cinema and the new universes that it opens up
Retrieved Aug. 18, 2014, "...Cinesexuality, Patricia MacCormack's ambitious and avowedly experimental work on film spectatorship, explores the "inherent queerness" of spectatorship....Cinesexuality is, in part, a reformulation of "cinephilia", the excessive love of or for cinema.... " Two reviewers suggest that MacCormack explores the "inherent queerness of film," in the sense that the relation between spectators and a film is "inherently queer." December 20th, 2013, Hili Perlson, Sleek Magazine
The Iron Lady No More
Retrieved Aug. 18, 2014, "... Patricia McCormack’s idea of “Cinesexuality”, which argues that spectatorship in itself is inherently queer. ..." According to reviewer Jill Crammond Wickham in ''Poets Quarterly'', cinesexuality can explain not only why film audiences feel such a strong desire for what they see on screen, but why "our culture is so obsessed with movie stars." Jill Crammond Wickham, April 2010, Poets Quarterly
An interview with Kate Durbin: Part I
Retrieved Aug. 18, 2014, "...Critic Patricia McCormick, who coined the term cinesexuality, ... cinema has the ability to produce intense pleasure in a viewer... why they have this strong desire eedfor cinema... why our culture is so obsessed with movie stars...."

Examples of cinesexuality

*'' Hellraiser II'' (1988) *''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

'' (1979) * The films of

Mario Bava Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the Ma ...

*''

Flesh for Frankenstein ''Flesh for Frankenstein'' is a 1973 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey. It stars Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging. Interiors were filmed at Cinecittà in Rome by a crew of Italian filmmakers. In ...

'' (1974) *''

Suspiria ''Suspiria'' () is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento, who co-wrote the screenplay with Daria Nicolodi, partially based on Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay ''Suspiria de Profundis''. The film stars Jessica Harper as ...

'' (1977) *'' Dimensions of Dialogue'' (1982) *

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

cinema The Item Number: Cinesexuality in Bollywood and Social Life on JSTOR
/ref>

References

{{Reflist

Origins

Meaning

Analysis

Examples of cinesexuality

See also

References

Further reading