Abstract: Roland Barthes was notorious for his self-proclaimed "resistance" to cinema. It strikes as a paradox to that claim because Barthes undeniably left a rich seam of writing on the subject. This paper examines Barthes's complex thought on the allure of cinema by reading his two essays on it – "Garbo's Face" and "Leaving the Movie Theater" – along with Barthes' later train of thought and other post-structural ideas of the reenchantment. It proposes that Barthes's "resistance" to moving images should be reconsidered as a neutral strategy to mask his fascination with the allure of cinema.

Key words: allure, Roland Barthes, cinema, "Leaving the Movie Theater", "Garbo's Face"