In 1895, Lumiere brothers screened ten 50 second videos using their invention of Cinematographe in the darkened room Salon Indien of the Grand Café in Paris. This was the first public screening of commercial movies. Their short films were later screened in various other nations not only in US and the adjacent countriesbut also countries in Asia like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Bombay. Since it was before the cinema was built in most places, they were presented in Gardens or in tea houses in China. Back when we were just introduced to film, we simply sought for any black dark rooms. Lots of movie theatres, place solely built for the sake of screening movies, were constructed starting from the early 20th century.
The lights turn off and black presses into the audience in the black box of what we call cinema. In the black darkness, a light beam opens up a new, alternative world within the box. But it is before the projection that us people leave our body. Roland Barthes calls the darkness of cinema, a colour of diffused eroticism. A colour that brings absence of worldliness, relaxation of body and inoccupation of body. Barthes quotes silkworm’s motto: Inclusum labor illustrat; it is because I am enclosed that I work and glow with all my desire. (Leaving the Movie Theatre, R. Barthes) We become unconfined in our bodies in where Barthes calls ‘cinematographic cocoon’. The tale of love and adventure that the film brings to the audience may be the main attraction to cinemas, but the experience of becoming free from our body, to fuse into the movie, is also an experience we can’t help to relish in the dark, confined space of cinema.
In the development of technology and the evolution of cultural entertainment, films are no longer restrained within the darkness of a movie theatre. Moving pictures can now be seen through 15-inch monitors in one’s living room or even 4-5inch screens of smartphones while walking on the road. However, it does not bring us the same satisfactory pleasure as it does when we find ourselves inside the freeing, confined black box. We still seek for the big screen enveloped by darkness. It is the freedom, the eroticism of the dark cinema, that we lust after to seek for indulgence of leaving our bodies in the cinema. And I believe it will be the reason why we will never stop from being reeled into the dark room of the theatre amidst its hypnosis.
cite: Leaving the Movie Theatre, page. 345-349, R. Barthes
Sujung Lim
It is lovely to read how passionate you are about movie theaters and your thorough understanding of Barthes’ piece. Other than the darkness in the cinema, I am also curious about the aspects of cinema that you are so fond of, whether it is sound, audience, screen, effects or colors. If you could dissect your journey at the cinema, it would be a very interesting contemporary comparison of Barthes’ writing.