现实主义电影理论与欧洲左翼文化思潮

在呈现现实和影响现实两个维度上，现实主义具有丰富的审美与政治内涵，并且在电影理论的语境下与欧洲左翼思潮具有深刻的内在关联性。具体而言，维尔托夫的“电影眼睛”不仅奠定了左翼影像的理论基础，更在艺术实践上树立了典范。本雅明揭示了电影艺术的双重政治属性，从而对左翼艺术在视觉维度上的超越性进行了深入挖掘。而意大利新现实主义和法国新浪潮的电影人则在理论与实践相结合的道路上做出了各自的探索，从而将左翼电影的理论潜能落实为现实社会中的文化政治。现实主义电影理论为我们提供了一个在视觉维度上透视艺术与政治之间关系的学术语境，值得进一步挖掘其中的文化内涵。

Realist Film Theory and European Left-wing Thought

For a long time, the Chinese intelligentsia has understood realism based on the Marxist theory of reflection and considers realism as an aesthetic mode that reflects the world through the lens of certain media. In fact, as early as the 1930s, the well-known debate between Georg Lukács and Berthold Brecht had already brought to light realism's complex significance. As Lukács saw it, realism has a representational prowess which can penetrate the ″fashion″ of life and grasp totality in both temporal and spatial dimensions. By virtue of realistic representation, the artist may not only anatomize the present reality but also shed light on the probable trajectory of history. For Brecht, however, art forms should not only keep pace with the changing reality but also give expression to the progressiveness of history. Therefore, the Brechtian realism focuses on the receptive dimension of art and is dedicated to fostering the proletarian revolution on the practical level. Despite their different opinions, both Lukács and Brecht possessed a leftist stance and laid emphasis on the cultural politics embedded in realism. Based on their respective concepts of ″representing reality″ and ″influencing reality,″ the present article aims to analyze realism's aesthetic and political significances and further investigate the relationship between realist film theory and European left-wing thought. Specifically, Dziga Vertov thought that film may not only document the physical world but also reveal the transcendental significance of reality. His kino-eye cinematography connects technological progressiveness with historical progressiveness and serves as a cultural means by which the proletariat may penetrate the surface of the everyday and grasp the authenticity of life. For Vertov and his comrades, it is the leftist filmmaker's duty to reveal the most authentic truth and fight against the banal bourgeois culture. In contrast to Vertov's ecstasy, Walter Benjamin unraveled the dialectics of film's political significance. On the one hand, he echoed Horkheimer and Adorno's theory of Cultural Industry in finding that indoctrination takes place in cinematic screening. On the other hand, he pinned political hopes on the film for its potential emancipatory force and envisioned a new cinema that might contribute to the working class's political consciousness and solidarity. For Benjamin, the advancement of productivity engenders a superstructure that allows human beings to adapt themselves to the social condition resulting from modern technology. Thus, the film may serve as a ″training program″ which counteracts the booming totality of capitalism through cinematography. Overall, Benjamin had an ambivalent opinion on cinema and relied on the film to actualize an ″aesthetic redemption″ in resistance to the social totality of modern capitalism.  Under the influence of Vertov and Benjamin, filmmakers associated with Italian neorealism and the French New Wave further explored the agency of cinematic realism from a combined perspective of theory and practice. For Cesare Zavattini, the foremost theorist of Italian neorealism, the verisimilitude of representation is expected to engender a reflective moment which invites the audience to reassess his or her social identity in the milieu. It is in this sense that cinematic realism potentially serves as a means to awakening people's class consciousness and enhancing the working class's solidarity. As for the French New Wave, Andre Bazin downplayed the problematic effect of indoctrination and gave prominence to the revolutionary potentiality of the film. For him, filmic images invite spectators to formulate their own visualizations and thus actualizes an ″aesthetic democracy″ in the cinema. Inspired by Bazin, Jean-Luc Godard aspired to challenge the audience's aesthetic norm by creating a unique sense of reality. For him, the film is not only a modality of self-expression but also a performative conduct aimed at social intervention. It is out of this political impulse that Godard massively deployed the Brechtian technique of alienation effect in his filmic productions involving the French Counterculture.