Abstract

The interactive cinema is based on the interactivity between the cinema and the audience. The discussion of interactive cinema can be divided into two poles. One is to positively look at the possibilities of interactive cinema as a new format and to test with them in various ways. The other is the perspective of a critical warning that the interactivity of interactive cinema risks reinforcing biases while instilling the illusion of freedom and activity in the audience. Considering both of these perspectives, we try to find a way to realize the political and aesthetic possibilities of interactive cinema through characteristic analysis. To this end, we analyzed the interactive film <Black Mirror: Bandersnatch>, which has received public and critical attention, based on Brecht's epic theater as a theoretical and practical reference. We analyzed the text/contextual characteristics of this work in three dimensions - an interactive multi-branching structure, a self-reflecting Mise en abyme structure, and an active enjoyment of the audience - and compared them with the epic theater theory. Through this, we examined the conditions and possibilities of interactive cinema as a new epic theater in the new technological/media environment of the 21st century.