The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility by Walter Benjamin is considered one of the most original and influential articles in the history of film criticism and theory. There was a lot that I took from his piece and I began to really agree with some of his points on how cinema has the technological ability to transform traditional art forms. One thing that I really liked to look more in depth at was sections ten and eleven (pgs. 238-240). These were the sections I was assigned in class and after reading them I really agreed with Benjamin. Basically the overall topic that these sections of the article discuss focus on actors and performances. Section ten discusses how test performance is an aspect of film production and film acting. He talks about the processes that have to be reproduced by film actors and how the film actor carries out an original performance for a “group of executives” instead of a stage actor who performs “in front of a randomly composed audience. ” He also compares film acting to sporting performances because they may at some point be intervened by a body of experts. Film gives actors the ability to exhibit test performances and gives these actors the opportunity to doing reshoots of scenes because they are performing in from of an apparatus, not a live audience.  For section eleven, Benjamin explains how the film and stage actor differ in performance. He writes “The stage actor identifies himself with a role. The film actor very often is denied this opportunity. His performance is by no means a unified whole, but is assembled from many individual performances.” What I think he is saying here is that a stage actor has one chance to get it right. There are no takes or edits in stage acting. If a stage actor doesn’t have enough expression in his face or voice it could derail the emotion of a performance. For film actors, they have the opportunity and tend to be more genuine in their actions and expressions. Also how film makers have the ability to mash all of these “individual performances” through editing. The edits that go into the finished project contain the most genuine and expressive shots that will help the film succeed. Walter Benjamin’s take on performances in film and on stage are I think very accurate analysis’. I really enjoyed reading about it because I am interested in acting and think its a good thing to read if one wants to be a film actor.