Abstract：For a long time, the Chinese intelligentsia has understood realism based on the Marxist theory of reflection and considers realism as an aesthetic mode that reflects the world through the lens of certain media. In fact, as early as the 1930s, the well-known debate between Georg Lukács and Berthold Brecht had already brought to light realism's complex significance. As Lukács saw it, realism has a representational prowess which can penetrate the ″fashion″ of life and grasp totality in both temporal and spatial dimensions. By virtue of realistic representation, the artist may not only anatomize the present reality but also shed light on the probable trajectory of history. For Brecht, however, art forms should not only keep pace with the changing reality but also give expression to the progressiveness of history. Therefore, the Brechtian realism focuses on the receptive dimension of art and is dedicated to fostering the proletarian revolution on the practical level. Despite their different opinions, both Lukács and Brecht possessed a leftist stance and laid emphasis on the cultural politics embedded in realism. Based on their respective concepts of ″representing reality″ and ″influencing reality,″ the present article aims to analyze realism's aesthetic and political significances and further investigate the relationship between realist film theory and European left-wing thought. Specifically, Dziga Vertov thought that film may not only document the physical world but also reveal the transcendental significance of reality. His kino-eye cinematography connects technological progressiveness with historical progressiveness and serves as a cultural means by which the proletariat may penetrate the surface of the everyday and grasp the authenticity of life. For Vertov and his comrades, it is the leftist filmmaker's duty to reveal the most authentic truth and fight against the banal bourgeois culture. In contrast to Vertov's ecstasy, Walter Benjamin unraveled the dialectics of film's political significance. On the one hand, he echoed Horkheimer and Adorno's theory of Cultural Industry in finding that indoctrination takes place in cinematic screening. On the other hand, he pinned political hopes on the film for its potential emancipatory force and envisioned a new cinema that might contribute to the working class's political consciousness and solidarity. For Benjamin, the advancement of productivity engenders a superstructure that allows human beings to adapt themselves to the social condition resulting from modern technology. Thus, the film may serve as a ″training program″ which counteracts the booming totality of capitalism through cinematography. Overall, Benjamin had an ambivalent opinion on cinema and relied on the film to actualize an ″aesthetic redemption″ in resistance to the social totality of modern capitalism. Under the influence of Vertov and Benjamin, filmmakers associated with Italian neorealism and the French New Wave further explored the agency of cinematic realism from a combined perspective of theory and practice. For Cesare Zavattini, the foremost theorist of Italian neorealism, the verisimilitude of representation is expected to engender a reflective moment which invites the audience to reassess his or her social identity in the milieu. It is in this sense that cinematic realism potentially serves as a means to awakening people's class consciousness and enhancing the working class's solidarity. As for the French New Wave, Andre Bazin downplayed the problematic effect of indoctrination and gave prominence to the revolutionary potentiality of the film. For him, filmic images invite spectators to formulate their own visualizations and thus actualizes an ″aesthetic democracy″ in the cinema. Inspired by Bazin, Jean-Luc Godard aspired to challenge the audience's aesthetic norm by creating a unique sense of reality. For him, the film is not only a modality of self-expression but also a performative conduct aimed at social intervention. It is out of this political impulse that Godard massively deployed the Brechtian technique of alienation effect in his filmic productions involving the French Counterculture.
引用本文:
唐 乐 顾明栋. 现实主义电影理论与欧洲左翼文化思潮[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2018, 4(5): 97-104.
Tang Le Ming Dong Gu. Realist Film Theory and European Left-wing Thought. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2018, 4(5): 97-104.
