How Plato's Cave relates to Cinema

 

By thinking of Plato's cave as a movie theater, we can surmise that the light from the fire can stand in for a film projector. The shadows cast on the screen represent the diegesis (or film world) created by the filmmakers (or artists). Finally, the prisoners represent the audience of a film theater, staring intently at the images projected onto the screen. 

 

 

Let's take a look at figure four from the "Apparatus Theory" reading. The figure has quite a lot of analogies for Plato's cave, but I want you to focus on the "State of the World," "Plato's Cave" and "Film" headings. 

If we look at these three headings, the analogy can be broken down into greater depth.  The shadows on the plato's cave wall create the illusions of the world. In a film context, those illusions are created and maintained through plot continuity. 

Not only can the film projector stand in for the mechanism of production, or apparatus, but also invisible continuity editing. If you recall from the Yale film analysis guide Links to an external site., continuity editing is "a system of cutting (editing) to maintain continuous and clear narrative action" in a film. In plato's cave, this mechanism of production is fire. 

Finally, the puppets that the artists in  Plato's cave use to create the projections of shadows represent the hidden reality. In a filmmaking context, a completed screenplay or production plan stands-in for the puppets of Plato's cave. 

Viewing experience

To conclude, please review the above long quote from page 26 of our reading. This quote represents what the prisoners see projected onto the cave wall. After multiple viewings, the prisoners become adept at predicting what will appear next or achieve a greater understanding of technique. 

As you can see above in the long quote, through repeated viewings and an understanding of cinematic form such as mis-en-scene, camera technique and editing, we as viewers can become aware of the tools of the cinematic apparatus and how they can be used for expressing an idea. In the end of the allegory, a teacher forcibly frees the prisoner from the chains of their viewing habits. The prisoner eventually has a solitary journey to leave the cave and discover what is real.

When the prisoner escapes, they eventually go above ground and see the sun for the first time.  When they confront the sun, they see the possibility of many unseen realities. In a film context, we could surmise that this refers to the many different film realities out there for us to analyze. Branigan posits that glimpsing into our true selves and understanding our viewing habits will allow us to better evaluate films.

On the next page, you'll watch our first screening for the week. 

--->