A proposal made to the British Association of Group Psychotherapists

THE CINEMA AUDIENCE GROUP

Day in day out, throughout the world, gatherings of people, often large in number and who are on the whole strangers to each other, come together in purpose built spaces guided by a universally recognisable set of traditions to participate in a cultural ritual specific to this century. Cinema audiences come together at a particular point in time on the basis of a shared wish to see a particular film. Membership of a cinema audience is for many people the only regular experience of participation in a large group of strangers. The cinema audience can be thought of as the archetypal form of the large group in the late twentieth century.

The BAGP is currently thinking about launching a project called The Cinema Audience Group, the idea of which is the application of a group analytic approach to the actual experience of going to the movies. It would entail a movie followed by a large group in the same auditorium. Naturally, as group psychotherapists, the focus of the project would be the group and what it is like to be together in the cinema with the lights on and the movie over.

Some time ago, single and alone, I went to see Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in Dublin and was staggered and profoundly irritated by the amount of noise made by the audience throughout the film. As far as I could make out it was mostly people talking about the film, asking each other questions, making comments, explaining things, and so on. I later explained my feelings as having arisen out of a clash of cultural norms and expectations with regard to the behaviour of the cinema audience group. The hubbub of this packed Dublin audience intruded upon my experience of the movie in a way that was unfamiliar - London audiences are so much quieter and reserved. However, thinking back I can now see extra layers to my emotions that evening. I was alone, adrift in this great unknown city, wanting contact with those around me but unable to make contact because of the battlememnts I had in place defending against my fears of the city. And of course the film greatly resonated with how I felt: lost in my lonely walled palace, surrounded by the hostile masses, I needed their compliance, to bow down and respect my need for silence, but instead they were noisy and threatening, reminding me that I was in fact powerless and, worst of all, on my own, unlike those around me.

The Cinema Audience Group would be the bringing together of two distinctive forms of group, the cinema audience and the group analytic large group, for the purpose of reflecting upon ourselves in relation to the experience of going to the movies. Participants are provided with a space in which they might begin to deepen their understanding of what has brought them to the cinema and what it is like for them when they are there.

It is hoped that the Cinema Audience Group will soon be on at a cinema near you.

Peter Zelaskowski

RETURN TO ARTICLES BY PETER ZELASKOWSKI