Archaism and Hegel in the Supply Reel - A Philosophical Look at André Bazin’s Realism

Abstract

André Bazin’s notion of cinematic realism has been either denigrated as “naïve” or been deformed to fit lines of thought in film studies that are at variance with the nature of his thought. However, as this article shows, there are strong influences of what one might call “archaic thought” in Bazin’s conception of realism. However, there is another influence on his thought: a substratum of Hegelianism, which often ignored in the reception of his work, contributing to its misrepresentation. At the end, we conclude if we forfeit this residual Hegelianism, not only we can have a better grasp of what realism truly is, but we also can have a more synchronous relationship between cinema and other art forms.

Keywords

• andré bazin
• philosophy
• philosophy of media
• film philosophy
• hegel
• plato
• archaism
• french film criticism