“Politics Of Audience”—Bazin's Film Realism From The Perspective Of Lancière's Political Aesthetics

Andre Bazin was one of the first foreign film theorists to be introduced to China,and his aesthetic ideas profoundly influenced the film creation of the Chinese Fourth and Sixth generations directors.In China,from the 1960 s to the 1980 s,Bazin's realist ideas,with specific ideological and political characteristics,were mainly structured by the mainstream literary and artistic creation of “socialist realism”.Since the beginning of the 21 st century,the re-interpretation of Bazin's theory has mainly relied on technological or philosophical point of vue,such as semiotics,visual perception studies,or phenomenology.This article revisits the socio-political of Bazin's concept of realism in the context of Lancière's political aesthetics.Lancière's “aesthetic regime of art” can be regarded as the sublimation and theorization of Bazin's aesthetic ideas,and Bazin's film criticism can be regarded as a historic practice of Lancière's “aesthetic regime of art”.This article argues that Bazin's concept of cinematic realism can be understood from three levels: 1.Image reality: Bazin's Image reality,dialectically based on and overcoming the "mummy complex",transcends Lancière's ethical regime of images,revealing the unique artistry of the film;the understanding from the perspective of the semiotic "indexicality" and psychology,obscures Bazin 's perspective on film culture by retaining Bazin's tendency of technicalism and formalism.2.Psychological reality: On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of commercial films,Bazin believes that the audience can overcome the plot,which is what Rancière called the "reproduction/ poetic regime" through self-psychoanalysis,so as to obtain the space for reflection and achieve "redistribution of the sensible".Regarding the operation mechanism of this psychological process,Lancière did not limit this issue within the question of form,but examined the conflicting operation process of the audience's emotion and reason when watching the movie."Reproduction" and "Aesthetics" are extended to the level of audience perception and social power distribution.3.Personal realism: In terms of the social function of the film,the realism advocated by Bazin is a kind of personal realism.He hopes that through film aesthetics,the public will get the ideological tools to resist power and political ideology,but Bazin did not solve at the theoretical level the contradiction between the elitism of the art film and popularity that film industry,as popular culture should have.With the help of the concepts of "equality" and "ignorant teacher" by Lancière,the dilemma encountered by Bazin's social ideals is more clearly presented and it also enables the Bazinian social ideal to manifest its significance at present.This article has three conclusions: first,reflection on ontological research of media.Whether it's people decide the operation of the media or the media determines the form of human perception,the position of the human subject in the media or art research is the key question.The sociality in Bazin's aesthetics provides an outlet for the ontological research of art and media.Second,re-examination of the politicized interpretation of Bazin from the 1960 s to the 1980 s.His aesthetic ideas should not only be understood as a purely depoliticized aesthetic.On the contrary,Bazin's propositions on image realistic,film psychology,and film's social significance highlight the role of aesthetics to confront politics.He revealed the "political" nature of film art.His respect for the audience provides an opportunity for us to reconsider the proposition in regard to literature and art under the influence of scientific Marxism.Literature and art should not be used as propaganda tools.At the same time,literature and art do not lose their potential to be a path of liberation because they may be propaganda.Third,the aesthetic "revolution" under neoliberalism and its predicament.In the field of traditional cultural studies based on scientific Marxism,aesthetics is regarded as a politic's projection.Rancière opposed this view with cultural determinism.He believed that we should return to the inherent universality and freedom of human advocated by German classical philosophy: the anti-utilitarian nature of aesthetics,non-conceptuality and common sense,let political aesthetics become possible.But at the same time,the advocacy of aesthetic freedom has also begun to encounter new difficulties.Today,most people have mastered video taping technic.Cyberspace seems to be free,democratic,and open.But racism,extreme nationalism,sexism,and various types of mental violence seem to be rampant today.The aesthetic ideas of Bazin and Lancière led us to go beyond the history of "political culture" in the second half of the twentieth century,and revealed a new "cultural politics" issue: how can an aesthetic community be established?...