What is Cinema

Our reading “What is Cinema” described the ontology of the photographic image by recounting the “mummy complex”, the concept in which man has a need within to withstand the fatality that time often brings. It seemed to be at first a comparison between the images that are forever saved to a piece of film, a piece of life that is embalmed much like that of the flesh and face of a mummy. I discovered as I continued to read that it is much more of an evolution of this “mummy complex”. Due to the fact that even Egyptians used the arts to withstand the time that tends to slip away to leave a message for the future.

            Painting typically took on two forms, creativity within the mind, and also images that reflected the outside world that existed during the same period.  Most would argue that those two forms exist in film and art as well by truth and fiction. Documentaries and typical cinematic experiences today definitely exemplify these two different reflections of art back then. The psychology behind the need for someone’s mind to wander past the bridge of normalcy into a world of magic and creation is somewhat astounding. I find that this tendency continued to evolve into what it is today absolutely mind blowing.