The Questions of Esthetics, Mind and Ethics, In Hugo Munsterberg's Understanding of the Film Medium

Eight months before his death, Hugo Munsterberg published his seminal and influential book the Photoplay: a Psychological Study; a work that is viewed by many commentators as the first systematic analysis of the art of film. Unlike the Photoplay, previous studies of films were unformed, impressionistic and most importantly were characterized by what Annette Michelson calls 'euphoric epistemology.' Munsterberg theory (as explained below) is illustrative of silent film theory, particularly the question of whether and by what means film could be conceived of as an art form. Indeed, the whole book is an attempt to provide an answer to this question through a comparison of the photoplay (film) with theater, a comparison that proves to be both fruitful and problematic. In answering this perennial question Munsterberg emphasized the ethical dimension of the photoplay, contradicting to some extent his understanding of art as isolated from it practical use. This paper will provide a detailed analysis of Munsterberg's film theory.

Film as Brain:

Munsterberg's book is divided into three sections, an introduction that presents a short history of film's 'outer' (i.e. technical) and 'inner' (i.e. aesthetical) developments and two main parts, respectively the Psychology of the Photoplay and the Esthetics of the Photoplay. The first part as the title illustrates explores the psychological dimensions of the film medium, essentially its ability to objectify the mental reality. Munsterberg explores both the role of the spectator's mind in the production of motion and the ability of film to translate mental processes such as memory, attention, and imagination. While the equivalent of the psychological process of attention is the technique of the close-up, memory is objectified through flashbacks. The flash-forward technique objectifies imagination. Film in this sense and in contrast to theater obeys the laws of our mind.

Film as Art:

The second part of the book, the Esthetics of the Photoplay, attempts to establish the film medium as an independent art, worthy of attention. Following Munsterberg, film is not a mere imitation of reality; it rather reconstitutes whatever it records, transforming reality. To prove this view, he distinguished two modes of thinking, the scientific, scholarly and the artistic. Whilst the scientific thinking. The difference, in Munsterberg's own words, is 'connection is science, but the work of art is isolation." On the one hand, science isolates its object of study to connect it to other elements. Art, on the other hand, places emphasis on the particular. Science yields general knowledge through studying cases. But for art, the particular itself is that which is valuable.

Film and Ethics

The ethical question is central in Munsterberg's theory, particularly his hints to the negative sides of cinema (its negative impact on audience) and his emphasis on the role of the photoplay in education, instruction and esthetic cultivation. The social reformer in this sense should focus his interest "still more on the tremendous influences for good which may be exerted by the moving pictures."