When I first started studying film, I encountered the term “cinephilia.” Before I could even process this new term, Susan Sontag claimed it was dying. Modern technology and contemporary media have made cinema and cinephilia more complex than ever, but neither is dead or decaying. If anything, we are witnessing its rebirth. Sarah Keller’s book “Anxious Cinephilia” mentions that cinephilia involves the love of talking about cinema. This claim means that true cinephiles do not end their discussions and inner dialogues when the theater lights come on. Our modern society’s discourses are now centered online; thus, it is possible cinephilia is now thriving digitally.
Tik Tok, a short-video hosting app with over three billion downloads, is helping rewrite how we talk about the film. This might seem like a big jump considering TikTok launched in 2016, but its shareability, trend-setting capabilities, and creative inspiration are revolutionary.
TikTok, first and foremost, is for creating and sharing videos. These videos, which can be up to ten minutes long, have various sounds, filters, and special effects. The app tailors the “for you page” to the individual user, meaning the more you like and interact with, the more similar content TikTok shows you. This “algorithm” makes it one of the hottest apps in the world.
With so many types of content on the app, it is no surprise that cinema-related content and communities have developed. Like any other social media platform, TikTok increases community engagement and discourse on everything. There are accounts and creators dedicated to only discussing the film and the industry. #Moviereview has over 1.5 billion views on the app alone. Furthermore, companies with Tik Tok accounts, such as Netflix, HBO, and The Hollywood Reporter, increase consumer-audience to industry-producer interaction.
TikTok claims that it has a growing impact on music and culture. And they just might be right. People discover music, brands, products, and celebrities through the app. It is engaging, diverse, and the hottest app on the app store. We’ve already established that it inspires film discourse, but more importantly, it has inspired a lot of action. The Rise of Gru trend inspired thousands to show out to the Minions movie box office debut generating over 108 million dollars in revenue on its first weekend. The sound capability on the app inspires adaptations of original scores and re-editing of clips from creators’ favorite films. John Powell’s “Test Drive” from How to Train Your Dragon (2010) became a site of use and manipulation.
In some cases, the score is used by itself. In another case, Powell’s theme is mashed with “Out There,” written by Tom Hulce and Tony Jay. While these are just two examples extracted from my own “for you page” (FYP), numbers indicate that I’m not the only one interacting with this content. #outhere has over 28.3 million views, #howtotrainyourdragon has over 2.2 billion views, and #riseofgru has 1.2 billion views. And if one likes a TikTok with one of the hashtags mentioned earlier, one will likely see similar posts.
If we expand the data beyond my FYP, #cinematogprahy has 3.1 billion views, #cinema has 20.9 billion views, and #cinephilia has 288.2 thousand views. The same search on Instagram yields #cinematography at 14.1 million posts, #cinema at 35.9 million posts, and #cinephilia at 55 thousand posts. Yes, views and posts are different, but Tik Tok gets way more interaction with fewer posts. While I don’t doubt Instagram and other platforms help create conversation bubbles about cinema, TikTok is managing to generate conversation networks.
Claiming that cinephilia is on the brink of death may be a stretch. It’s true that the cinephiles of the social media era are different from the cinephiles of the Cahiers du Cinéma era. But when it comes down to it, TikTok may actually be the key to revitalization. Individual movie lovers and major film corporations are all participating in discussions online. The app is a site of creation and conversation, two crucial factors defining cinephilia. It looks very different from the cinephilia of 50 years ago, but love is about adapting, and TikTok is the tool to help us adapt.
Article courtesy of Sara Ciplickas
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