Films as Mass Art
In simple terms, films have been considered as the reflections of the society. But studying films in the presence of agenda setting function of media would mean otherwise. There has been a theoretical turn from a conventional concept surrounding the categorisation of film-as-an-art (cine-art) or expressive visual art-form to a more critical approach accepting films as mass art or film-as-medium.
Perceived by masses in a context, films according to Adorno, are ‘mass-cult’; mass produced culture which presents a ‘flattened’ version of the reality. Benjamin acknowledges the potential for mass art to manipulate. “Film, as an art of the masses, embedded within society and used by social, political, moral humans, has the potential to be constructive or destructive” (D’Olimpio, 2014). Unlike the earlier theorists - Adorno & Horkheimer, Benajamin’s framework stating the potential of films to screen ideas was further reinforced by the Deleuzean’s optimism approach to films.
No film is made in a cultural vacuum. As films are an importance source of cultural data, film producers or filmmakers may be considered the cultural producers on a massive scale. Films exist in a social & cultural context one that is partially of their own creation. In film studies in particular, non-western films are much more likely to be “read” in terms of the influence that society or cultural contexts have on cinematic output (Gray, 2010).
Delluc’s work reveals that cinematography has “the unique ability to transform objects into symbols for thought and emotion” (Parkinson 1995: 64). Further, films create, produce and reinforce roles and identities. All media texts are the representations of the reality. “Rather than reproducing the ”world” spontaneously and automatically, as the ideology of realism would have the spectator believe, the cinematic apparatus always operates selectively, limiting, filtering and transforming the images that are its raw material” (Rodowic 1994, 77).
Meanings in a film are communicated through signs. Based on certain conventions, these signs constitute codified information (Kishor, 1999). The codified information, narrating the story, has different meaning in different cultures and its real interpretation is possible in the culture where the film is based (Pandey, 2014).