Singin’ in the Cave: Singin’ in the Rain and Hollywood’s Sparkling Shadows

The cinema, the seventh art, offers a reliable representation of reality more than any other art form. However, the cinematic image is created with the mediation of an always present mechanism. In other words, the promise of fulfilling the Aristotelian aspiration for mimesis (imitation of life), can be reached only with the use of artificial machinery. Following that, this article discusses the cinematic medium with the analysis of the film Singin’ in the Rain (Donen & Kelly, 1952) using the writings of Plato, Jean Baudrillard and Christian Metz. It raises insights regarding the dialectics between silent and talking films, the musical as a cinematic genre, the role of sound and music in the cinematic medium, the gap between the image shown on screen and the reality that it wishes to reflect and the significance of the cinema and the influence it has on its viewers.