The author describes the environment of the theater inside the cinema. In the cinema, the darkness is a kind of hypnosis. It makes people isolated from society. When people is watching a film inside the theater, the projector penetrates the air and dust. Dust is dancing with the film which led the audience to focus more on the film itself. The author is surprised by the projector as it just uses a tiny hole which already makes all the audience flabbergasted on the film itself. The author describes the level of concentration is like the audience are glued on the screen which is very high.
The most sentence that I like is ‘The real knows only distance, the symbolic knows only masks’ the first part of the sentence I understand it as the objective fact which is the distance between the theater screen and audience eyes which cannot be change, the second part I understand it as the film itself always present some of the basic image. Hiding some things that is cruel, heartbreaking facts to the audience. The audience itself, if just watching what the film is presented, may miss some of the important parts that the director wants to tell you. However, by watching one more time, think more, the result will change.
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I appreciate you reflecting on Barthes’ essay. Instead of only summarizing what he wrote, reflect on your movie-going experience through Barthes’ thesis. How does the film impact you and how it does it contribute to your understanding and/or experience of daily life as well as other people in the city? You quote Barthes’ sentence, ‘The real knows only distance, the symbolic knows only masks.’ How do you understand this sentence (using your own words) and to what extent do you experience it?