Variable framing seems to be one of the crucial formal and discursive aspects of moving images in general and narrative cinema in particular. Changing the framing of the profilmic space is a powerful device for narration to create hierarchies within the image, direct the spectator's attention to important details, give spatial overviews of scenes, and affect the spectator emotionally. As we shall see, cut-ins, close-ups, and camera or character movement have had different functions within the history of film. I will argue that some of those functions work in relation to, and can be accounted for by, a theory of personal space. At the core of this argument lies the assumption that the spectator brings to the theater spatial and bodily “expectations” or “dispositions” with which the cinematic discourse interacts and thereby produces certain meanings and effects.

The idea is not new. The link between personal space and variable framing has been given some attention over the past fifteen years in media psychology (Messaris, 1994:89ff; Meyrowitz, 1986; Reeves, Lombard & Melwani, 1992) and in historical reception studies (Tsivian, 1994:196). Some of these may have appeared independent of each other, which suggests the feasibility of the connection.