What do the movies mean to you?

[Attila the Professor]

To me, film is the art form that comes closest to perfection. Don't get me wrong, I am far from spitting on symphonies, painting, and all the other great art forms, but the great art form of the 20th century is the one that appeals to me most.

Perhaps this is because it captures moments, the basic unit of life, from which the sum of our life experiences is comprised. Film comprises the moments of other people's lives...carefully crafted characters that exist for the sole purpose of entertaining and enlightening us. Some of these people are megalomaniacs that spend their whole lives looking for talismans of their childhoods. Others are lonely lawmen courageously waiting for what looks like their doom. There are little tramps, great stone faces, and everymen.

There is the one short, produced by Chuck Workman for the 1994 Academy Awards, that takes the essential images of film and puts them in chronological/thematic order, with snippets of dialogue and sections of great film scores. It reminds me of why I'm proud to be a movie fan. By the time I'm through watching it, I've experienced sentimentality, surprise, glee, and gloom. From The Great Train Robbery to Schindler's List, and most everything in between...it's a great thing...the moments...they're what's important.

[swords]

Well heres my reason, I have a cinescape mag that pretty much describes what movies mean to me, an exerpt from one of its articles:

"Action movies don't get much respect from the cinema intelligentsia. You won't find many Film Studies profs teaching courses called "The works of Arnold Schwarzenegger" or grad students writing papers with the titles like 'Yippee Ki-Yay, Mother Comrade: Pre- and Post-Cold War Marxist Paradigms in the Die Hard trilogy.'
But from its very beginning, filmaking has been all about action. The first movie audiences oohed and ahhed over 'motion pictures' that did nothing more than depict a ship launching or a train pulling into a station. As the technology and the technique for using it advanced, moviegoers became a little more demanding, of course. But the basic appetite never changed, they still wanted to see something happening-something exciting."

There you have it, I couldn't have said it better.

[NileQT87]

there should be a course just on harrison ford flicks. seriously. itd be a full course just with sw and indy.

::dreams:: ...lol

[British_Lion_2003]

the movies mean to me a chance to escape from normal life. To step out of my shoes and into someone elses for a few hours.

[wolfgang]

Man, movies mean more than that to me. Movies teaches me somethin or I can compare myself to a character, or makes me laugh. When I see a good movie I loose myself in it. I love movies. In fact, if you ask ME to difine life, to me its like a huge movie with different themes and chapters, and it never ends until you die.

[Pale Horse]

I have to disagree that Movies are the supreme art form. My money goes to Literature because everyones intelligence is different.

Description of a scene in a film script looks like this:

EXT. NIGHT. Busy SHOPPING MALL. PEOPLE mill about their business without noticing a DARK FIGURE waiting in the shadows.

This example is subject to any one cinematographers or directors point of view.

In contrast the following example is a BRIEF narrative of the same scene;


The night air hovered against the buildings like a sultry lover. In the darkeness of the shadows, emptiness kissed the ears of a man, the way a lover would seduce a willing bride on the night of her consumation. Patrons of the otherwise busy plaza milled about like lemmings, pacing endlessly to sacraficial consumerism, never noticing the sinister way the man watched his prey from the shadows...

By leaving the setting and character and emotion to a subjectivist POV, the work of art becomes more complex and revealing then the limited POV of a movie. If someone wants to argue the point, compare the comments of those who say the BOOK was better then the MOVIE and those who say the MOVE was better then the BOOK.

[00Kevin]

Originally posted by British_Lion_2003
the movies mean to me a chance to escape from normal life. To step out of my shoes and into someone elses for a few hours.

you said a mouthful buddy, escape the pressures of everyday life

relax

have fun

enjoy a great story and other stuff


I BLOODY LIVE FOR MOVIES!!!!

[Attila the Professor]

Originally posted by apalehorse
I have to disagree that Movies are the supreme art form. My money goes to Literature because everyones intelligence is different.

Description of a scene in a film script looks like this:

EXT. NIGHT. Busy SHOPPING MALL. PEOPLE mill about their business without noticing a DARK FIGURE waiting in the shadows.

This example is subject to any one cinematographers or directors point of view.

In contrast the following example is a BRIEF narrative of the same scene;


The night air hovered against the buildings like a sultry lover. In the darkeness of the shadows, emptiness kissed the ears of a man, the way a lover would seduce a willing bride on the night of her consumation. Patrons of the otherwise busy plaza milled about like lemmings, pacing endlessly to sacraficial consumerism, never noticing the sinister way the man watched his prey from the shadows...

By leaving the setting and character and emotion to a subjectivist POV, the work of art becomes more complex and revealing then the limited POV of a movie. If someone wants to argue the point, compare the comments of those who say the BOOK was better then the MOVIE and those who say the MOVE was better then the BOOK.


Actually, literature probably is better, except for the condensation of the moment, which I feel is very important, and something film is better at than prose, but I don't think I agree with your argument. You say that the cinematographer or director influences how the audience takes in the information on the screen, but I think the writer has this power too, and to a greater degree. If Hemingway, Dante, Shakespeare, and Voltaire were to all tell the same story, I think each one would read considerably different, and influence what the reader feels about the story.

[00Kevin]

literature is good, but more people, beleive it or not, match movie then read books

movies are #1

[westford]

Not going into a movies vs lit debate now - I could say loads on that...

I'd say some films are an escape from reality, but not all. Some films have really touched my heart - American Beauty was one, Donnie Darko was another. I can't explain it very well, but I left the cinema feeling like I'd just seen god or something... I dunno, they just seemed really profound to me, like they'd opened my eyes that little bit wider...

[swords]

Yeah, I know the feeling. I feel the same way after three viewings of the Matrix Reloaded, my eyes are beyond that stage, j/k.;)

I never got Donnie Darko though, a lot of people praise it, Im going to have to give it a second look, a second viewing, so don't ruin it!

BTW, a literature vs movie debate would be worthy of discussion I think, seeing how topics are spread short as it is on this forum.

[Pale Horse]

That is a good point about the views of the author, Attila. I guess I never really thought about many authors treatment of the same story.

I do think, though that there have been many good movies where direction, editing, acting, and countless other factors have ruined a brillant script. In that respect, movies are a more comlicated art. If a book is bad, all you can do is blame the author. (And occasionally the editor)

[torao]

i don`t like these film vs. literatur discussions. i adore both forms of art.
literature leaves more free space of association and imagination. whereas film is more complex(i hope this word exists in english). you have the music and sound...pictures...the whole stuff you are allowed to imagine while reading a book you are confronted with in life action so to speak. and this is thrilling, amazing, touching in another way (worse? better? i dunno..it`s mixed)then it is with literature.

i love the words you found for movies ATTILA. i can just agree with you...:)

[wolfgang]

I'll have to agree with tarao. they are both good, each has sepcific reasons for being good