CAN MOVIES BE "PROFOUND"?
that resides in the multiplicity and shadings of psychological analysis
will fit neither into the three acts of a drama nor into the three–
hundred scenes of a film. In a certain sense Thomas Mann is right in
saying that the novel is more profound than the drama, and he even
seems to be more or less justified in remarking elsewhere that the
film
has nothing in common with
-art.
It assuredly has little in common
with the art that fathoms psychological depths.
However, all
art
is not "profound"; there is
also
an art which,
though lacking the dimension of depth, can boast some very great
works. Raphael, Rossini, Victor Hugo-to take the most disparate
examples-cannot but be regarded as great masters, but no one
will
claim that their works offer an insight into the depths of man's soul
or destiny. The euphony, the balance, the harmonious lines of their
works are pleasing without being profound, and the impression con–
veyed by these works is one of perfect artistry, although they exist
in a world that is without mystery, fully deciphered and unveiled.
In addition to this unprofound art, there is an art whose pro–
fundity is
not
psychological, that is to say, it is not accomplished
by analysis and interpretation of the individual traits of psychological
being. The great tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles are profound
without psychological depth, because their
form,
the form of tragedy
itself is profound. Their profundity consists in the unveiling of the
intelligible, free personality turned essence and in the revelation of
a substantial being that is ordinarily covered over. The characters of
tragedy can, in a certain sense they must, be uncomplicated, schematic,
flat-surfaced; the tragedy itself is never flat, for every successful
work participates in the depth of the genre.
And literature offers other forms of depth that are not psycho–
logical and do not derive from dark, mysterious characters. There
can be depth in the relations between unprofound, undifferentiated,
summarily sketched characters, as for example between Aunt Betsey
and Mr. Dick in
David Copperfield.
The earthly paradise of these
two fools is beyond a doubt one of the most beautiful and most pro–
found daydreams in literature; the idea that in life's important mo–
ments a fool always says "the right thing," because in such moments
all of us are fools, and because Betsey Trotwood knows how to find
the right thing, the best thing, in the words of
a
fool--or perhaps
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