Barthes captures your typical viewing experience of the coming and going of a cinema. The metonymy, “The darkness of the theatre is prefigured by the “twilight reverie.” Is what I completely identify with Barthes’s feelings towards the idea of a cinema. We are immersed in the box of hypnotic light accompanied by relaxing seats and the sound of ecstasy. Our every sense is dulled to only concentrate on the projected film. Whether the genre is paced slowly or fast, our minds can’t help to be static and pierced by the dancing lights of the screen. For Barthes and I, the darkness that covers us and the cinema hides our emotions. With the number of seats surrounding you, you feel as if you’re alone in an empty hall by yourself. This explains Barthes’s thoughts on the film and the sound being “a lure” as if we’re surrounded by the vast darkness of the sea, and that bait is what attracts us and ultimately captures our body to be lost into the “opaque cube”. As the film’s finale approaches, we start to disengage from the hypnotic light, which concludes with our minds pulled away as it finally reaches the end credits.
Jaden Hui 3035987013
Nice summary of Barthes’ text. You have explained the experience of a movie theatre in a comprehensive manner and how the mind is held in stasis because of the setting. I appreciate your analysis on the singularity of being in a movie theatre that creates a sense of solitude despite surrounded by filmgoers.