Rudolf Arheim thinks film should be regarded as “an art of form only”. In order to get his point of view through, first and for most, Rudolf Arnheim pointed out the raw material of film should be the unreal aspects rather than the representation of the reality, the view which most of people believing film should not be regarded as a form of art hold.

As a Gestalt psychologist, Rudolf Arnheim considers the film should be viewed in a “whole” way instead of a “part” way. And the “whole” can be controlled and manipulated by filmmakers. As photography, the shots of films are taken from the reality. However, film is not just a random combination of the chaos. By deciding the frame, editing, adjusting the light, building the way of story-telling, etc., the artists are the creators of film. Especially, in the film, the artists should deal with the time and space, which is beyond the reality. What’s more, in the terms of dealing with the limitation of technology, the artists are doing a creative job to make the spectators sense the smell, feeling of touch and people’s emotions, which the techniques can not achieve nowadays.

Regarding the film as a kind of medium, Rudolf Arnheim thinks film has the nature of “creative” by focusing on “artistic effects” and “limitation”: “Film artists are aware of the images they create and they exploit these limitations, forcing the spectator to see not just the object in the screen but the object carefully delimited via the medium.” Beside the technical limitation, film art is also trying to over come the limitation of the real world. By using artistic effects, such as fast and slow motion, fades, backward motion, etc., in the film, artists can make the time pass by either slower of faster, make the existing objects disappear or even make time goes back ward. All these effects are controlled and manipulated by artists, further, they can only be done by artists. besides, Rudolf Arnheim has a very interesting view of the development of the technology. To him, the purity of an art form is very important, and the out coming of the sound may ruin this kind of purity, for it causes the de-emphasizing on the aesthetic of images.

As for the form of the film, Rudolf Arnheim holds the view that “artistic effects” should be seen as a kind of tool, just like colors to painting, words to poetry. Filmmakers learn how to use these methods in order to make their idea be expressed in a proper and workable way.

After figuring out the raw material of film art is not just the representation of the real world, Rudolf Arnheim then tries to explain the relationship between art, artist and the reality. With the knowledge of Gestalt psychology, Rudolf Arnheim explains the relationship of the three aspects in a very scientific and systematical way. Eventually, he draws the conclusion that the purpose of art work is to express both the idea of artist and the world. The original Gestalt is as interesting as those some of the ideas of ancient Greek philosophy or some part of Zen thought. However, as film students, it is less important for us to know the details about it.

All in all, Rudolf Arnheim built his film theory in a psychological way. He tries to figure out the raw material of film as well as the relationship between art and the nature and insistent on film should be a form of art only.

11 January 2010, on the first day I became a film major student, my favorite director died…

It happened on the New Year Eve’s party at my friend’s house where I was the only Chinese among more than 10 Canadians. Everything went on very well in the party, except for two embarrassing things — my exaggerate scared reaction of dogs, and a guy’s comments on Chinese government.

At last, I let the dog Cici lay on me feet and touched it. I would never do it before, because of my fright to dogs. That night, for the first time, a dog and I became good friends. However, the guy’s barking is still annoying me till now. Well, I do think he is a nice guy, and I know he just want to say something about the Chinese government for fun, and use the phrases such as Communist Country, Religions or Child Labour to indicate that he is acknowledged instead of meaning to offend me.

Usually, I would be a person telling my Canadian friends about how shitty the Chinese Government is, how I hate the Chinese Communist Party with a very natural tone, and I feel glad to tell my friends these things about China. This time, however, is different, as the only Chinese girl among 10 Canadians, I do feel embarrassed and annoyed by the guy’s talk.

I did feel surprised about my reaction and feeling to this issue. Why I do hate Chinese Government and I wouldn’t feel bad if I heard any bad news about China on TV, but I do hate some Canadian guy’s negative comment about China.

I really want to tell that guy, it is not my choice to be born in China, and charged by the Chinese Communist Party, everyone in the world want Democracy and Freedom and meanwhile we are trying to change the situation. But your talk wouldn’t let me feel you don’t like China, it would just make me think that you hate me so much.

It is just like you won’t tell an overweighted person anything like you looks huge or it is the time for you to get out of your big ass and loose some weight unless you are a doctor, so, it is okay for you to discuss about Democracy and Communism with a Chinese girl seriously, but don’t talk about it in a joking tone, it won’t make you look fun nor humorous.

At last, the guy’s Comment on Chinese Government end up with my “What did you say?” Actually, it was just a question sentence, because it is  literally true that I didn’t hear what he said clearly. I looked at the guy, and the guy avoid my eyesight with a shame.