Experiencing Extended Point-of-View Shots: A Film-Phenomenological Perspective on Extreme Character Subjectivity

The wish to accurately represent the subjective perceptual experience of a filmic character and to intimately connect these character perceptions with the viewer’s experience has a long history. However, this history of extreme first-person perspectives in film—from the inside out, so to speak—is a troubled one. The aim of this essay is to discuss, from a film phenomenological perspective, some of the limits attempts at a continuing first-person perspective have faced. I will give a few hitherto overlooked arguments why, for many viewers, their embodied experience stands at odds with the character’s subjectivity suggested in the film, which can lead to experiences of strangeness and even discomfort. I will point out what seems “wrong” or “missing” in comparison to actual sensorial, temporal, and social experiences, all the while presuming that a strong perceptual identification is the implicit goal of these films