Benjamin- Actors/Camera

I think the most interesting concepts in Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” were those relating to film. His thought that “for the film, what matters primarily is that the actor represents himself to the public before the camera, rather than representing someone else” (26). I kind of took this idea a million different ways. After first reading it, I thought about how when you watch anything you erase the fact he/she is an actor and concentrate on their character. You let yourself forget that its Jason Schwartzman and he is Max Fischer or Albert Markovski or Jack Whitman. He becomes the character. However, as I kept reading deeper into this concept that “what matters is that the part is acted not for an audience but for a mechanical contrivance” (26). I took this to mean that the actor is acting to a mechanical device, in this case a camera, which is responsible for sending the information to an audience. The camera is the eyes of the audience; a representative of such. Therefore, the camera is our eyes. When we view a film, we take the camera to be our eyes and the films progression to be our viewing. Somehow in our minds we delete the mechanical-ness or thought there is something between us and the scene. The camera then is able to go beyond our normal visions by using “the close up” where “space expands” and “with slow motion, movement is extended” (31). The camera is our advanced eye that shows us how to view the scene. I remember the first time I saw I Heart Huckabees and the objects on screen were split and reconnected. Schwartzman’s face was divided into boxes and Hoffman’s too. All their little pieces came together and somehow the camera showed me the point of the movie. Everything is connected. The camera is the engaging eye that dissects and that which the actors perform to, knowing it represents the audience. At least I think.

Benjamin. Kelsey Pike.