Some of the
conventions of the emerging film are cultural accomplishments,
probably comparable to the convention of ideographic writing.
They belong, nevertheless, to a pragmatic context based on the
characteristics of literacy. They ensue also from an activity
that will result in higher and higher levels of human
productivity and efficiency. Each film is a mold for the many
copies to be shown to millions of spectators. The personal touch
of handwriting is obfuscated by the neutral camera-a mechanical
device, after all. That the same story can be told in many
different ways does not change the fact that, once told, it
addresses enormous numbers of potential viewers, no longer
required to master literacy in order to understand the film's
content. The experience of filmmaking is industrially defined.
It also bears witness to the many components of human
interaction, opening a window on experiences irreducible to
words; and it points to the possibility of going beyond literacy,
and even beyond the first layers of the visible-that is, to
appropriate the imaginary in the self-constitution of the human
being.
Some of the changes sketched above occurred when cinematography,
after its phase of theater on film, started to compress
language, and to search for its own expressive potential.
Compression of language means the use of images to diminish the
quantity of words necessary to constitute a viable filmic
expression, as well as the effort to summarize literature.
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