Analysis of Myth of Total Cinema: Bazin Essay Example

to elucidate is that the guiding myth of realism and cinema should be the production of cinema unburdened by an artist’s interpretation or subjectivity.

It also means that the time is not restricted. In addition Bazin continues, “The real primitives of the cinema, existing only in the imaginations of a few men of the nineteenth century, are in complete imitation of nature” (Bazin, 202). He is stating that a real cinema is established by those who dream of cinema as a replicate of nature. Bazin concludes that the myth of total cinema is ‘realism’, and that it has been a part of every man before invention of technology. Bazin’s article is very interesting and reasonable but his arguments only justify one side of the story.

Cinema is not only a tool for reproduction of nature but also an apparatus for fantasy and dreams. It can be argued, I too agree, that the development of technology was created for the purpose of recreating nature, but the development of technology has advanced artistically. This artistic development of technology has aided many in creating their imagination that are beyond reality. For example, the film, Inception, contains scenes that are impossible to film in reality. Scenes containing upside buildings, never ending stairs, buildings crumbling and etc. are very difficult to accomplish without the help of the advancing technology. Yet the advancing technology has made it possible to create the impossible. What I am trying to say is that the story of Inception was not created prior to the advancement of technology but after. The story of the film was thought out with the possibilities of the technology

in mind. Bazin maybe correct in stating that cinema was essentially the instinctive drive of human desire to reconstruct and imitate reality though we can argue that it is not the ‘only’ drive of cinema.