The Control Cycle in Film

The aim of the present study is theoretical. The question set up for examination is whether there is a cognitive model that underpins human sense-making in the context of film experience. The conceptual resources provided by Cognitive grammar (as elaborated by Ronald W. Langacker), the recent developments of the neuroscience of emotions (as advocated by Lawrence Barsalou, Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Giovanna Colombetti), the theory of attention advocated by Michael S. A. Graziano, and several suggestions from the embodied-enactive approach (in the works of Evan Thompson and Maxine Johnson-Smith) seemed particularly useful coordinates for this research composed of analytical reflections. The study focuses on the cognitive model based on the action of control, understood as an explanatory instrument for creating meaning, and follows up with the possible applications in the domain of film analysis. The work is the result of collaborative research spurred by theoretical advances and hypotheses from neuroscience, neurolinguistics, and film theory and analysis. On the account developed here, the structure of the control cycle cognitive model is regarded as central to sense-making.