Last year, I was lucky to see the Italian film "Happy As Lazzaro" at the El Gouna Film Festival. I was taken with the film, so much so that I was able to watch it again when it was shown on the panorama of the European film, and the second time I discovered an amazing discovery. The film revolves around the character of Lazaro, a young man surrounded by an angelic halo that forces the viewer to hang on to him emotionally. In one of the scenes of the film, Lazaro falls from the highest mountain, and the two times I watched the movie, the voices of the audiences in the hall in a very real expression of the fear that surrounded them after watching their beloved hero die. The experience was great, and I saw firsthand the impact of the art of cinema on its fans and lovers, and I wondered; Why do people watch certain films? How do their specific preferences crystallize among the many types and forms of film available and presented to them?
Cinema and box office
`` Forced Escape '' (2017) was a major turning point in the box office of Egyptian cinema, as it pushed film revenues, digitally, to the public attention for the first time in decades, after achieving revenues exceeding 55 million pounds, and started campaigns Media and propaganda that lean on box office numbers to influence viewers' attitudes. Considering the impact of the big jump in inflation that began in November 2016, the real figure does not have much significance, but the digital comparison with films in previous years (Al Jazeera 2 = 35 million, Ahwak (= 22 million, "Winding and Turnover" = 43 million) contributed to the real achievement of this film.
After the "forced escape", media interest in Egyptian film revenues increased dramatically, and all media platforms were quick to publish box office numbers on a daily basis with each new film season. Media battles between different production companies spread to confirm the lead as the sole criterion for success. Which compares the most revenue-generating films in Egyptian cinema history. Serious attempts to address this phenomenon centered on the answer to the question: "What do Egyptians watch?", And away from the fever of numbers and revenues, we saw that the most interesting question is: "Why do Egyptians watch these films?".
| Forced escape film (communication sites) |
Construction films and spoil the "public taste"
With Gulf capital specifically penetrating into the Egyptian film industry in the 1980s, the term “entrepreneurial cinema” surfaced, referring to low-budget, low-tech films produced specifically for external distribution in Arab countries, or mass distribution through tapes. the video. In this period, critical writings dealt with the dilemma of supply and demand, which revolves around the question: who makes the artistic product, the artist or the recipient?
The same dilemma renewed at the beginning of the new millennium with the spread of Sobki cinema, and critical writings began to accuse the brothers Sabki for spoiling the concept of "fiction" called "public taste." In fact, there is no universal definition of the term "public taste", but it is commonly used to refer to the general public by default, as if this audience is a homogeneous mass, and derives its significance primarily from the commercial payoff of movies at the box office.
In his book "Cinema and Psychology," Skip Dyne Young, a professor of psychology who specializes in film studies, describes successful commercial films as "democratic films because they embody mainstream ideas and feelings, and inhabit areas familiar and comfortable to most of American society." [1] Young's definition of successful commercial films is an important entry point for understanding their audience. They are not "elitist" films in the cultural sense, but are suitable for the taste of the vast majority of the audience. If we use this quantitative criterion in defining the audience or public taste, it is natural that box office success is a real indication of the audience's orientation and consumer appetite for a specific type of artistic product, but is it a good criterion for judging "public taste"?
| El Sobky For Art Production (Communication Sites) |
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu believes that in order to have tastes, there must be goods classified, good or bad, distinctive or marketable, and people with principles of classification and tastes, allow them to distinguish from those goods that suit their tastes. Thus, there can already be taste without goods (taste in the sense of classification, separation and discrimination) and goods without taste. [2]
If we look at Sobky's films as such, as a product or entertainment product, the success at the box office is certainly linked to the presence of the consumer whose taste corresponds to this commodity, but the critical writings that accuse the brothers Specki of corrupting the public, and demanding the latter to improve his taste, confirms Her short view of the concept of taste, which Bourdieu sees arises through the convergence of supply and demand, or more precisely between classified goods and classification systems, and that change occurs in the two spaces - the space of production of goods, and the space of production of tastes - at the same time. A new question arises: what has happened to the classification systems of contemporary viewers?
In order to get off the ground, we at Meydan conducted a simple questionnaire on a random sample of more than 100 respondents who answered a basic question: “What is the criterion for deciding to go to the cinema?” Participants are allowed more than one answer. The reasons and criteria varied in the responses of the participants. The result is as shown in the following figure:
In the past few years, the technological revolution has greatly affected the classification systems of the viewer in general, and the Egyptian in particular, as access to foreign product and access to foreign film has become much easier than in the recent past, and the penetration of social networking sites in all aspects of daily life Consequently, he created new communities of viewers that developed their own classification systems as their viewing experiences accumulated.
These new communities rely heavily on film reviews, whether through IMDb's digital assessment, or through video reviews of a number of YouTube channels such as the movie rigid. This type of review finds widespread acceptance on social media, and the number of its makers is constantly increasing.
Returning to Dyne Young, he believes that we all value our experience in watching movies. Those who speak the tongue, the louder, or the most talked about, become academics or create blogs, but even the least able to express themselves depend on their choices for what they see from previous cinematic experiences. For most people, this assessment includes a conscious meditative element. Ask ourselves: Was the movie fun? Was it satisfying? Or was it a waste of time and money? Fun and gratification are the key issues when we treat the film as a form of entertainment. When people choose the forms of entertainment they prefer, it is recognized that they make decisions that they consider important. [3]
The desire to go to the cinema depends on the pleasure and satisfaction that the film achieves, and most Egyptian cinema productions do not achieve this goal in any way.
The decision to go to a movie theater to watch a movie seems a simple decision, but it's actually not, especially in Egypt. There is a calculation of the material cost, which is affected by the economic situation of the viewer, as well as the location of the cinema, with easy access to films, the audience is more inclined to watch them at home than to go to the cinema, and for this festive seasons witnessed a high demand for cinema, due to the availability of material capacity, especially for children The younger group is young, as well as being a regular holiday outing.
This is all the more complicated when it comes to watching an Egyptian film. The desire to go to the cinema depends on how much fun and satisfaction the film achieves.Most of the Egyptian cinema productions do not achieve this goal anyway.Therefore, we note that the Egyptian audiences' interest in foreign films is increasing steadily in the years. Over the past three years, foreign films have dominated a higher revenue share than Egyptian films with a growth rate of 65%. [4]
In the remainder of this report, we will try to extrapolate the Egyptian public's trends and test the psychological impact on the viewing process, based on the list of the most watched films in the history of Egyptian cinema prepared by researcher and film analyst Mohamed Hussein after the inflation rate, as well as on a number of films that achieved figures Record at the box office over the past three years.
One hundred years of comedy
The most remarkable observation in the list of the highest-grossing films in Egyptian cinema over its century-old history is that the entire list falls under the category of comedy. Returning to the questionnaire, we find that 50% of the participants depend on the selection of the film on its genre / classification, which seems a logical explanation for the control of comedy films on that list.
Psychologically, comedy occupies a special place among the different genres, as comedy films make people laugh, and they really need to be in spaces that make them laugh, and hence they may be the most established and widespread. This observation is consistent with the theory of pleasure about the attractiveness of the film. We enjoy movies because they bring us pleasure. [5]
Comedy is gaining an added dimension in the Egyptian viewer. As film critic Sami El Salamouni says: "If it is true that comedy is one of the most important components of the Egyptian character when facing crises, it is natural that one of the most important and active types of Egyptian cinema is comedy. It was not only a public response at all, but it was also an effective means of expressing the Egyptian reality to those who want to monitor the mood, changes and what lies beneath the surface of this reality. ”[6]
The spread of the comedy of what is now called construction films is nothing but an expression of a severe crisis among the public who already accept this commodity because he wants to laugh at anything
In this context, Young observes a range of patterns that link cinema attendance to cultural and economic conditions in so-called “escapee entertainment”. For example, one study found that between 1951 and 2000 there was an increasing proportion of comic violence scenes in comedies Revenue such as "Blazing Saddles" - 1974, "Home Alone" - 1990, and "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" - 1999, which were produced in periods characterized by high unemployment, CPI, and murder or suicide. Such films visually embodied the frustrations of the era. [7]
“Even when actors seem to do nothing more than joke around and critics attack, it is only an expression of psychological, economic, and sometimes political, nature that produces this kind of humor. It is only an expression of a severe crisis among the public who is already accepting this commodity because it wants to laugh at anything and at what level. At the quantitative level, comedy has the added advantage of being family films suitable for all family members, especially children. In family films, the mathematical unit is the family, not the individual.
The duo dominate the box office
The questionnaire indicates that the criteria of the star of the film and its director are the main determinants of the audience's interest in certain films, and we can draw from the list of highest-grossing films to confirm this, we will find that the comedian Mohammed Saad tops the list with four films, followed by star Mohamed Henedy with three films of absolute starring, In the fourth film "Ismailia Rayeh Jay", Mohamed Henedy co-starred with singing star Mohamed Fouad.
Another remark, sideways but explained, can be deduced from that list: all the stars on the list are men. It is certainly a global observation. “The popularity of movie stars is another reflection of the attitudes and preferences of the audience. Many observers have noted that male actors have a longer and more successful artistic life than actresses,” says Young. [9]
Sure, there is a difference between the Egyptian and American scenes, and the Hollywood star industry is different from that in Egypt.However, we can see how the popularity of the star is influencing the popular turnout through a common behavior among most Egyptian viewers who pay more attention to the star than the film. A number of viewers ask for the movie ticket in the name of his star.
| The Secret Men Club of Karim Abdel Aziz (Networking Sites) |
The most frequent reasons for respondents to the questionnaire are the director of the film, and although the questionnaire did not ask the participants to determine their answers regarding the Egyptian and foreign film, some respondents mentioned in their answers the name of the Egyptian director Peter Mimi. Director Peter Mimi has been in a boom for the past several years, during which he has been able to top the box office in a number of seasons with films such as "War as Symbols" and "Casablanca". His television work is a hit every Ramadan. Much of this success is related to the pairing between Peter Mimi and the star Amir Karara, so their work meets the two most frequent criteria in the respondents' responses to the questionnaire.
This success is also linked to two very important factors. The first is the large volume of production available for this duo, in which Mimi can save enough expenses for the most expensive scenes in the film industry, which rely on tricks and influences, battle designs and foreign bomb specialists, and other factors attractive to the slide Great audience.
The second factor is the size and means of advertising and marketing of films a relatively long time before launching them, and targeting the audience by contemporary means, such as marketing on social media, and relying on million pages such as "Screen Mix", or special designs for comics and quotations from the film dialogue. We see this clearly in the propaganda strategies of another equally successful duo, which includes director Marwan Hamed and popular writer Ahmed Murad, and make sure to put up propaganda images of heroes and action stars once they are hired, long before the start of the film.
This propaganda strategy has proven to be a great success. Early marketing of the film and the exploitation of social media communities create a state of anticipation for the film that becomes a strong motivation to watch it immediately after its release, and individuals are motivated by the influence of peers to watch the film in the early days of its release, so that they can participate in writing about the film On their own accounts on social media platforms.
Action films .. Why are the public inclined to violence?
Not only has the commercial success of "Forced Escape" entangled the viewer in the battle of revenues, but he has also put Action to the forefront at the expense of the comedy. Over the past three years, the vast majority of box office monopolies such as Cell, War as Symbols, Diesel, Casablanca and Ould Rizk all belong to this genre.
From the standpoint of psychology, the high identification potential of an artistic medium such as cinema is a major motivation for the viewer to seek exciting experiences that he does not actually have. The search for excitement is a personal trait that refers to the pursuit of dangerous and novel experiences, experiences capable of generating sensational excitement (fast driving, gambling, skydiving). Individuals with a high degree of excitement tend to like films that contain a lot of violence, horror, adventure, and quick editing. [10]
The name of the star Ahmed El Sakka is especially related to the genre of the action film, as he built his wide fame on his physical ability and performance of dangerous scenes without the use of an alternative, starting from the famous jump in the film "Africano" and through a lot of jumps and scenes dangerous, and to one of the scenes of "forced escape" Where we see Sakka hanging on one of Osman Towers in Maadi.
The scene depended on the drone camera, which starts with a close-up of Sakka's face to confirm that he himself is the one who leads the scene, not the alternative, and then retracts backwards to widen the shooting angle further to demonstrate that the scene is being shot live without any Effects. Such dangerous scenes give the viewer a large burst of adrenaline that maximizes the degree of identification and, consequently, the viewing experience.
In addition to dangerous scenes, violence is one of the important tributaries of Action, but the question is why the public is watching movies full of violence and destruction. According to Freud, innate destructive tendencies are punishable in civilized societies when they are expressed in an open way, and are therefore displaced into the unconscious. However, this does not eliminate them and, therefore, raises internal tensions. One solution is to shift our aggressive tendencies away from activities that cause us trouble (from a brawl in a bar) to socially acceptable activities (watching a brawl in a bar in a movie). [11]
Here, the action film shares the comedy as a form of escapism, in which the viewer can drop what has accumulated in his own unconsciousness on the screen. In the same context, Jung asserts that violence has proved to be beneficial for the survival of mankind in the face of enemies and ferocious monsters. Hence, violence is a useful catalyst for problem-solving and is deeply engraved in our genetic codes. But in our modern world, violence is not a successful way to solve the problems of daily life.Then our aggressive motives are reflected in symbolic means.Violent films turn into sources of pleasure and gratification, this saturation that is translated at the box office in record numbers year after year.
Receiving is a complex issue, as the way a person responds to or explains a film depends on a number of elements: the type of film, the nature of the viewer, and the composition of the audience in terms of homogeneity and difference, aesthetic considerations, and marketing strategies. Confirms Bernard F. In his film Anatomy, Dick argues that as the audience becomes more diverse, there is little likelihood that in the future there will be a comprehensive theory about receiving films, but further studies through both sociology and psychology about the response of the viewer.
The action film shares a comedy as a form of escapism, in which the viewer can drop what he has accumulated in his own unconsciousness on the screen.
The short view of critics and professionals in their analysis of audience attitudes and preferences is linked to the lack of accurate data and private research.In Hollywood, studios and production companies fund similar research to understand public attitudes in order to use their findings to develop, market and publicize films. This research uses a variety of methods, such as public responses during test presentations, interviews with panel discussions, and exit polls. The research is concerned with human nature and cultural, economic and social conditions, and thus its results are more accurate and provide a clear picture of the audience with its various segments and preferences. .
In Egypt, of course, there is no such research, and we do not have any accurate data on the true revenues of films or their geographical and demographic distribution, which extends for many years and contributes to the consolidation of the myth of public taste, or what some argue: "The audience wants this."