The Shoutbox
Wakanda for a little while!
Wakanda Forever!
Huh? Somebody feels bad for Black Panthers? And who are the Chicago Bears? Revolutionary Asians?
Breaking Mews!

Chicago Bears announce they feel so bad for the Panthers organization, that they ae returning the #1 pick in the draft!
i'll take things that didn't happen for $200
I don't think serialized television counts as a movie either. It's the serialization that is the difference. So I would count something like Salem's Lot as being a movie, but not Berlin Alexanderplatz.

But I also don't think this distinction matters very much as both art forms essentially are composed of the same thing (sound, images, editing). So I just call them movies, even if they aren't, and am done with it.
But Berlin Alexanderplatz or Histories of Cinema are exceptions from the rule. I can't imagine anybody arguing that Prison Break of M.A.S.H or Game of Thrones is a movie. Not with a straight face. And yet people are still doing it! Their reasoning seems to be that since some mini-series can be interpreted as films, then all TV series can be films.
Originally Posted by Sedai
I will give you the benefit of the doubt here and guess that you don't spend time watching TV shows because it cuts into your time watching films, and not because you think TV shows on the whole are bereft of any inherent value as an art form?
More or less true. I don't believe TV shows are worthless. I just think cinephilia is about watching films. Watching TV shows is some other hobby.

Originally Posted by FilmBuff
Originally Posted by Mr Minio
I hate how some cinephiles watch TV series and pretend it's just like films.
Can you name even *one* cinephile who does this?
I can, but I don't want to @ anybody on a site they don't use.

Originally Posted by Wyldesyde19
If a mini series was released released theatrically, I think it’s fair game in the discussion of films. Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz for example, received theatrical distribution with each episode released through the week.
How about Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma? It was released as episodes over an 8 year period.
And of course, we have older serials released in episodic format.
Yep, that's the overlapping I mentioned. You can definitely discuss whether or not Berlin Alexanderplatz is a film or not, or discuss whether or not a given work of art is a mini-series or a film, but this is on a one-by-one basis.

Any attempt to define the clear cut between film and TV series is bound to fail unless you base it on your intuition. The idea used to be that a film is one that is screened at the cinema. But what about TV movies? And screening a TV series episode(s) at the cinema doesn't magically make them films. Likewise, some films were released straight to Netflix or some other online platform, bypassing cinema releases - especially during Covid. Then you have TV specials, like the long first episode of the original Twin Peaks - a film or not? The bottom line is this: It's hard to tell whether or not something is a film or a TV series. You have to analyze every work individually, and even then there might be disagreement. As for Berlin Alexanderplatz, it's a film, but it's hard to tell why. You just feel it is, which I do realize is a terrible reason/explanation, but risking the "appeal to authority" logical fallacy, any cinephile I know says it is, so it probably is, since cinephiles should know best.
eh but im not a cinephile i hardly post here anymore and i joined 5 months ago
examples are
'11 Louds a Leaping' (24m)
'LazyTown's New Superhero' (46m)