Abstract

Filmmakers begin their work with an empty screen in the same way that artists approach a blank canvas. The implied intention is to create a work that will evoke emotion, thought and reflection. As both film and art have developed, so have the ways in which the screen or canvas is populated. As technology has developed so have methods of transferring the intention. Likewise, there have been adaptations in the way viewers, absorbed in moving images on the screen, interpret the images from moment to moment, ultimately, as a composite work, and from their particular point of view. This article examines certain ethical aspects of watching film with regard to three relevant film innovations, namely: classical Hollywood narrative, modern auteur film, and a comparison between the experience of contemporary viewing, with its access to new technological platforms on the one hand, and viewers’ experience of the very earliest film on the other. The discussion incorporates some thoughts on the Greek philosopher Plato's Allegory of The Cave, which is presented in his work The Republic, where he interrogates how reality and knowledge are mediated according to the point of view from which the images projected onto the wall of the cave are viewed and interpreted. With reference to watching images in film, the article proposes three points of viewer interpretation that affect their experience of reality and knowledge which include the ethics of familiarity (routine viewer), the ethics of expectation (customised viewer), and the ethics of the medium (novel viewer).

摘要

电影制作人从空白屏幕开始他们的工作，就像艺术家接近空白画布一样。隐含的意图是创作一部能唤起情感、思考和反思的作品。随着电影和艺术的发展，屏幕或画布的填充方式也在发展。随着技术的发展，转移意图的方法也在发展。同样，观众的方式也发生了变化，他们全神贯注于银幕上的移动图像，从一个又一个瞬间解释图像，最终，作为一个合成作品，并从他们的特定角度。本文就三项相关的电影创新，即：古典好莱坞叙事、现代导演电影，以及当代观看体验之间的比较，一方面是对新技术平台的访问，另一方面是观众对最早电影的体验。讨论包含了对希腊哲学家柏拉图的洞穴寓言的一些想法，该寓言在他的作品《共和国》中有所体现，在那里他询问现实和知识是如何根据投射到洞穴墙壁上的图像的视角来调节的被查看和解释。文章针对电影中的观影，提出了影响观众对现实和知识体验的观众解读的三点，包括熟悉伦理（常规观众）、期待伦理（定制的观众），以及媒体的伦理（小说观众）。