Reading response 1 – Leaving the Movie Theatre by Robert Barthes

In Ronald Barthes’s Leaving the Movie Theatre, he argues that the hypnosis in a holistic movie theatre experience is achieved through the synergy between the twilight repertoire and the image repertoire. Whereby the spectator possesses the narcissistic tendency to simultaneously identify with the spectacle whilst admiring it, and the anonymity of the dark environment allows the perverse body to indulge in the freedom of modern erotisim. While this may be true, the impact of hypnosis is not guaranteed across all types of films such that the gendered use of film semiotics can significantly affect voyeurism and narcissism (Mulvey, 1975). For instance, films catered to the male gaze would require additional effort to hypotize the female audience as the ideologies the spectacles possess won’t align to those inherited by a woman. Hence, this diminishes the image repertoire as the viewer fails to identify with the spectacle. Without an authentic representation of the spectator, the film lacks verisimilitude and thus ruins the user experience of the movie theatre.

Additionally, while viewers obtain new ideologies from films they simultaneously bring theirs into the movie theatre. Thereby, the lure of the image repertoire can be tainted by the failure to meet the audience’s expectations. This is especially emphasized towards movie sequels in mainstream cinema as the build up of expectations for the sequel are reinforced by circulations of comments over the internet. In turn, highly enthusiastic viewers would occasionally generate imaginative theories or concepts. As a result, this accentuates the expectations of the upcoming film regardless of the extremeness of the alleged theories. This is evident in the latest movie sequels where the lack of satisfaction is reflected in the decline in box office performance, such is exemplified in Quantimmania where it experienced a 69% drop in the MCU franchise (Marca, 2023).