Walter Benjamin describes a screen actor as having to put his “whole self” before the camera. Actors whom portray themselves and their own work process obscure the transition in literature which took centuries to come about. While in comparison, people who are commonly readers become writers and reply to something in the daily press. Those that respond in “letters to the editor” share their comments and blur the line between author and public.
In shooting a film, it is possible to give a spectator a viewpoint discernable from the actual scene. The environment of the play would be hard to detect as an illusion. The camera equipment and lighting machinery becomes part of the immediate reality, same as a magician is compared to a surgeon. A cameraman follows procedure analogous to a magician. On the other hand, a painter must follow a natural distance from reality like that of a surgeon.
Individual reactions are predetermined by the response of a mass audience. This is the norm seen in films. However, paintings do not give such a collective experience. The paintings shown even in public exhibitions produce a unique reception to its viewer. As such, the public which view a film in a progressive manner will likely respond in a reactionary to surrealism.
The characteristics of film have developed into a means of analysis since the book Psychopathology of Everyday Life. The behavior items previously overlooked are now being further explored. By scrutinizing the close-ups of things, the focusing on hidden objects, the guidance of the film or camera we extend awareness to the necessities in our daily life. The camera gives rise to the unconscious optics as psychoanalysis does for our unconscious impulses.
A task for all art is to create a demand. Those of Dadaism did so by outraging the public and creating a moral shock effect. Film also creates a shock effect to an extent. Reception from film is continually being distracted and the shock effect is only met halfway. So, art is evolving but the public has become an absent-minded examiner.
