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Theory of film : the redemption of physical reality (1960)

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MATTERS OF CONTENT 263 physical reality, content in the realms of history and fantasy is amenable to cinematic treatment only under certain conditions. Accordingly, it will suffice here to concentrate on the remaining two aspects of content. In the following the term "content" applies exclusively to subjects and/or motifs. To simplify matters, they may, where not otherwise stated, be thought of as occurring in feature films which fall into the area of actuality. UNCINEMATIC CONTENT As with story forms, it may perhaps be best to start by looking for uncinematic content. The task of tracing it will be facilitated by a summary recapitulation of several basic ideas which point in this direction. Much emphasis has been placed throughout on the fact that film shots of material phenomena are surrounded by a fringe of indeterminate meanings and that, thanks to their psychological correspondences and mental connotations, they may well lure us into remote provinces of the mind. The representation of the inner world, that is, conforms to the cinematic approach as long as the phenomena of this world can be derived, somehow, from pictures of the outer world. Things change, as I have likewise stressed, if the relation between the two worlds which comprise actuality is reversed. No sooner do the events which make up mental reality pretend to autonomy than they on their part determine the character and succession of the shots of physical reality; instead of being suggested by a flow of images, they force the imagery to externalize their flow. And yet another point has been impressed upon the reader, namely, that mental reality includes components which indeed must claim ascendancy in order to be represented at all. The reason is that they lack correspondences in the physical world.* Uncinematic content is identical with these particular components of the mental continuum. It is content which does not stand a chance of making itself known unless it is communicated in its own terms. Whereever such content is required, it automatically occupies the leading position. The visuals may signify it in one way or another but are incapable of evoking it by indirection. Two varieties of uncinematic content stand out clearly— conceptual reasoning and the tragic. Conceptual reasoning Conceptual reasoning, a mode of conveying thought processes rather than a mental entity like the tragic, is by itself neither subject matter nor * See especially p. 237.