Andre Bazin -The Myth of Total Cinema

Andre Bazin -The Myth of Total Cinema

This theory works to point out how film originally came to be, and the visions of the creators of the medium. In 1946 the co-founder of cahiers du cinema, and well respected film critic Andre Bazin wrote an article entitled The Myth of Total Cinema in which he outlined a theory about the evolution and future of the cinema. Bazin works to prove that some inventors were in the business of making filmic equipment solely for the purpose of making money, while others, the few “savants” as he calls them, had a clear vision, a determination to push the envelope and to make films that were hyper real. His theory also works to explain that because newer technology is always evolving, the amount of realism that can be achieved in the cinema is also infinite and therefore according to Bazin, the cinema has not yet been invented. According to Bazin what is considered to be the complete illusion of life, is a long way away. What he means by this is that although technology is in a constant state of change, there will never be any way to accurately completely re-create that which is life. According to him cinema has not yet been invented. This according to Bazin is the problem, as realistic as something in film may seem, it is not actually real because of constraints due to technology. Bazin also pointed out in his article that the blame for the lack of original movement of the cinema on the capitalists, who were more concerned with profit than they were with the progression of cinema as an art form. According to Bazin reality through cinema will likely never be reached. Without being a true voyeur, which is in a sense what film is all about it is nearly impossible to reach what Bazin talks about in his article. As it was with the beginning in which the innovation of longer movements, different angles, sound in film, and colour in film, and the handheld camera that drove cinema farther, it continues to grow with the innovation of digital media and other technological advances. While some may argue that the digital revolution is a bad thing, there is no stopping progression in cinema. Like Bazin said, “Cinema has not yet been invented”, and it likely never will be. He was even worried that film artiests, moving from to form to form, might pass up or give up a pure od cinematic expressions were ever find it.