As a kind of mass media, film has its unique storytelling mode and visual language. Through elements such as video, music, performance and text, the audience is transported into a "significant" virtual world. In this world, filmmakers convey deep cultural information to the audience through the use of various visual symbols and symbols. At the same time, as a comprehensive art form, the constituent elements of film have diversity and complexity, and these elements are combined and arranged in a specific way to form a special form of film. Clive Bell's theory of "significant form" has important guiding significance for explaining the close relationship between the form and the content of the film, as well as the aesthetic emotion aroused by this form. This article will explore how films use visual symbols and cultural symbols to express deep meanings and the importance of these significances in film viewing.

Guo Shiping. The significant form: Visual symbols and cultural symbolism in film. Frontiers in Art Research (2025) Vol. 7, Issue 1: 42-46. https://doi.org/10.25236/FAR.2025.070107.

[1] Chen Lu. (2020).Research on Mythological character Shaping in Domestic animated Films based on visual symbols. Shaanxi University of Science and Technology.

[2] Tian Chengyu, Guo Feng.(2020).Analysis on the use of Light in the film 400 Blows. Drama Home (23),135+137.

[3] Su Xiaotang, Li Yajun.(2021).The cultural expression and symbolic significance of Chinese elements in Soviet films. Frontier Economy and Culture (04),103-104.