Is the plot of The Mummy a plot of mankind’s pursuit of eternity?

Bazin proposed in "The Ontology of Photographic Images" that all art (especially painting) is based on religious impulses: human beings' "psychological desire to replace the external world with realistic imitations" ” is “the instinct of human beings to preserve life”. He attributed this psychological desire to the "mummy complex." He argued that the religious beliefs of ancient Egypt advocated death against life. He believed that if the body does not decay, life will last forever. Therefore, this religion caters to the basic need of human psychology: to contend with time. For death is nothing but the triumph of time. This is why the ancient Egyptians made mummies. Therefore, Bazin believes that the outstanding feature of film is to capture and preserve the movement of life through the impact of activities.

The psychological root of "mummy complex" is "preserving truth". The so-called preservation of truth is to reproduce the integrity of the world. Bazin insisted that authenticity is an aesthetic phenomenon and that truth is contained in the integrity of the world. He said in "The Myth of 'Complete Movie'": "The concept of film is equivalent to the complete reproduction of reality. What they (introducer's note: the predecessors of the film industry) imagined is to reproduce a sound, color, three-dimensional sense The phantom of a complete external world...the cinema is born out of a myth, and this myth is the myth of the complete film.

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