A Study Of What Is Cinema?From The Perspective Of Existentialism

André Bazin(1918-1958)is a powerful symbol of French New Wave film theory.As a film theorist and critic,he completed his film theory building with a series of film articals.From the late modern period to the postmodern period,significant changes have taken place to the concept of film art,which is based on the transformation of philosophical paradigm.Based on the perspective of existentialism,this article looks back at André Bazin's film theory to study the internal logic and process of this paradigm shift: André Bazin's film theory presents a tendency of subjective disintegration and liberation of images as objects.This brings the gradual appearance of the body.The main body of this paper is divided into three parts,which aims to analyze the three core points of André Bazin's film theory from the perspective of existentialism: the ontology of the photographic image,the binary relation between montage and depth-of-field lens,and the "cinema total" myth.First I will discuss André Bazin's ontology of photographic images.First of all,from the discussion of the origin of plastic art,we can see that the world is completely recorded by film,so does the authenticity of time and space.Also we can see the identity of images and subjects.Therefore,as a plastic art,film has irreplaceable realism.In the film,the image has the privilege of not being intervened by human.At the same time,the images of objects show the disintegration of subjectivity,but this disintegration is not complete.The second part I will focus on the theory that André Bazin's discuss montage and depth-of-field lens as a binary relationship.First I will explain that André Bazin how to describe montage as a symbol of traditional metaphysics of subject.Then I will explain the concept of the “depth-of-field lens” proposed by André Bazin and the depth-of-field lens is the self-representation of the world as objects.This self-representation brings adecentralized perspective,which shows that what André Bazin concerns is not the Traditional realism that imitates reality,but the existence and mode of the world as the object itself.In the end,the decentralized perspective gives the right of interpretation to the audience.The third part I will discuss the "cinema total" myth.First I will explain that technology is important in the "cinema total" myth.Then back to Sartre's view of realism,we can find that the authenticity of "cinema total" is not "real means" but "the feeling of real" and the attention to physical sensation finally brings the appearance of "body" gradually.Studying André Bazin's film theory from the perspective of existentialism,we find that André Bazin's film theory deviates from the traditional realism theory.It is not an imitative reproduction of reality,or a model personalities.From the ontology of photographic images to the binary relation between montage and depth-of-field lens and the "cinema total" myth,André Bazin explained the decentralized perspective brought by the retreat of humans.The traditional metaphysics of subject centered on human consciousness and logic gradually disintegrated.Body gradually occupied a more important position between consciousness and body.