Cinema is often associated with escapism and losing touch with reality, but the centrality of fantasy in spectatorship does not diminish film's superior force in our search for truth. In The Pervert's Guide To Cinema (2006), Slavoj Zizek says: "In order to understand today’s world, we need cinema; literally. It’s only in cinema that we get that crucial dimension which we are not yet ready to confront in our reality. If you are looking for what is, in reality, more real than reality itself, look into cinematic fiction."
In his allegory of the cave, Plato imagines a group of chained people living in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on a wall by objects passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the prisoners accept the shadows as reality. The philosopher however searches for another explanation, struggling for freedom from the cave, eventually discovering the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
The process of becoming a philosopher in film spectatorship is contained in the commitment to the search for meaning. Psychoanalysis helps to transform the mundane experience of passively watching projected images on the wall to the journey out of the comfortable chair, onto a dark path, where distance enables a new perspective and we can finally identify the original light source and know the true 'forms'. Meaning at this point is more real than reality itself - we are in an evolved state, and how refreshing it is not to be dictated to! The artificial shadows are cast aside and we become the creators of our enjoyment. Imagination comes to life and we bask in the glow of beauty.
This trailer of 'The Truman Show' (1998) illustrates the struggle of freedom from the cave:
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