Although Wednesday evening was technically my first time seeing M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense” I cannot consider myself to be a first-time viewer.  During class we discussed and debated a great deal over the differences in perceiveing the film for a first or second time.  Because I saw the film so long after it’s release and becasue I had read articles about it before the film was one hundred percent ‘spoiled’ for me by the time Wednesday night came.  I’m not at all upset by this, I actually think it gave me a very unique persepective on the film.  It wasn’t my second time seeing it, but I also didn’t enter the screening without any knowledge of a twist ending.  This places me in a strange category of viewer which I’ve been trying to identify over the past day or so.  

Watching ‘The Sixth Sense’ I found that while I was continually paying attention to Bruce Willis in terms of living/dead, but at the same time I was still busy taking in the fabula information of the story.  Not having seen the film before I was stuck trying to follow the narrative while also paying attention to more than just the simple information that was being presented.  It was as though I knew I wanted to try and catch the plot twist and stay in tune with the choices of the syuzhet while also needing to pay attention to the fabula on a more basic level.  It was actually quite strange of an experience.  The screening made me think especially about how my viewing experience of films changed after I began taking film classes at Middlebury.  Before I began to study cinema I was very much a naive, one-dimensional viewer.  I wouldn’t analyze the movies I watched on more than a basic like or dislike level.  I didn’t have the vocabulary or discourse to be able to critique them or even understand many of the cinematic choices being made.  This obviously changed quickly after classes helped me to think in new ways, with new ideas and understanding about not only what I was seeing but why I was seeing it and how it had been made.  I began to pick-apart different choices of direction or edition upon seeing a film for the first time and especially upon re-watching a film.  I still feel that in order to understand, appreciate and critique a film it’s necessary to see it multiple times, but the more I study film, the more variable I can appreciate on the first-time viewing of a film rather than simply understanding the narrative.  I have really enjoyed this aspect of studying cinema; the progression from a sort of ‘fabula-level’ understanding to a full ‘fabula/syuzhet’ understanding.  I am interested in seeing ”The Sixth Sense” for a second time to see how the experience changes, though I don’t expect it to be as dramatic as those who first saw the film, unspoiled in theatres.