What does 的 mean in 电影展示在盲人面前的不只是一时的多彩

Question

In the following sentence:

电影展示在盲人面前的不只是一时的多彩，电影改变着每一个听电影的盲人的人生。

It uses 的 after 面前, and the sentence would mean something like the following:

The theater shows not only the splendid view temporarily in front of the blind person, but also changes the life of each blind person who is listening to the movie.

But what does 的 mean in this sentence? I understand that sometimes things after 的 is omitted if it refers to people and is obvious, but in this case it seems to be not people and not obvious.

So why is 的 used here and what does it mean?

Answer 1

「的」in that context means that which is....

電影展示在盲人面前「的」不衹是一時的多彩，電影改變着每一個聽電影的盲人的人生。

That which movies exhibit to visually-impaired people are not just fleeting displays of magnificence; for those people that listen, movies change their whole life.

Compare:

• 紅車 (Red car)
• 紅「的」是車 (That which is red is the car)

Grammatically, what's being cut out here is something like 東西 or 事情. The full expression of the above example might be something like 紅的東西是車 (The red thing is the car > That which is red is the car).

Answer 2

My expert says this number 1 的 is ‘what’. The other 3 are not what (explain that)!

电影展示在盲人面前的, 不只是一时的多彩， (What a) film gives blind people , is not only a time of flamboyant (albeit imagined) colour,

电影改变着每一个听电影的盲人的人生。 films change the life of each blind person who listens to films.

Answer 3

It is quite simple if you change a little bit on your mind that there is something omitted after the first 的, we usually call it 东西. So you can read this:电影展示在盲人面前的（东西）不只是一时的多彩，电影改变着每一个听电影的盲人的人生。

东西：thing, stuff, substance, something that with entity or just abstract