Abstract:

 From a century of research for the film and television, it has been proved that an actor or a star is the most attractive factor. This is because the "permanent value of a play lies in its characterization". Since digital hightechniques have created "digital actors", someone think that, from the level of theory, the day will come when real actors are replaced with "digital actors". Even some articles point sharply out that it is now the time to consider the disappearance of the photographed object before the camera. Can it be true: the development of digital hightechniques results in the replacement of the real image performance of film stars? Is there the same aesthetic value between the two? In other words, where is the aesthetic value for the image performance of real stars? By performance, there are two kinds of aesthetic value. One comes from the star himself; the other from his creative screenimage. For the film star, the real self integrates the virtual image so as to bring out the best result in each other, which combined beauty can never be acquired by the digital star. The screen beauty, or the performance charm, consists of six aspects: body, character, emotion, spirit, mettle and verve. Although the beauty of the external shape can be created by the digital star, the most important beauty is acquired by the face, which can express something indescribable. Especially the eyes, which serve as revealing one' s internal secret, can never be possessed by the digital star. And the character, by virtue of the director' s usage of film techniques, can be enlarged in such a degree that it produces an incalculable infectiousness, which is very difficult to be copied by the digital star. And the emotion, as one of the superlative aesthetic activities, is only produced by humans, which is also unable to be copied by the digital star. As for spirit, mettle and verve, they chiefly refer to the creation of the star besides his internal diathesis, all belonging to the kernel of the character. The performance of the real star is enjoyable because he can produce different personality, which is even unrivalled by any digital star. To sum up, the aesthetic value produced by the film star can never be acquired or replaced by the digital star.

Key words:  film aesthetics; image performance; digital actor; performance charm; noumenal psychology; aesthetic value