The article deserves a special attention as it not only provides a remarkable account for the use of the human face in the cinema but also underscores the dependence of empathic response on affective congruence between narrative context, character engagement, various uses of film style and technique, and the psychological impressions and responses they generate. The concept of affective congruence promotes the idea that is crucial for further film studies in general and for the present thesis in particular. Its validity is based on its treatment of the cinema as hybrid art and its call for the exploration of film in the congruence with an array of stylistic devices. Fundamentally, it is the only approach which can provide a comprehensive analysis of a cinematic text, especially if it is complemented with communication theory. It is conditioned by the fact that only when all three communication channels possessed by the cinema as an artistic medium – the verbal, the auditory and the visual - are considered in their synergetic interplay, the critic can gain insights into the totality of the audio-viewer’s cognitive and affective responses to the narrative. Moreover, in case if the researcher has appropriate laboratory equipment and/or is in the position to collect empirical data, s/he also has an opportunity to account for the audio-viewer’s physiological reactions to the cinematic texture.