Cinema is valuable not for its ability to make visible the hidden outlines of our reality, but for its ability to reveal what reality itself veils ― the dimension of fantasy. ( ① ) This is why, to a person, the first great theorists of film decried the introduction of sound and other technical innovations (such as color) that pushed film in the direction of realism. ( ② ) Since cinema was an entirely fantasmatic art, these innovations were completely unnecessary. ( ③ ) And what’s worse, they could do nothing but turn filmmakers and audiences away from the fantasmatic dimension of cinema, potentially transforming film into a mere delivery device for representations of reality. ( ④ ) But sound and color threatened to create just such an illusion, thereby destroying the very essence of film art. ( ⑤ ) As Rudolf Arnheim puts it, “The creative power of the artist can only come into play where reality and the medium of representation do not coincide.”

* decry: 공공연히 비난하다 ** fantasmatic: 환상의