What makes cinema special for you?

One of the many reasons why cinema is personally special to me is that it is the only art form that can relax me when life gets heavy. Also when the writing and acting captivates me and the background score relaxes my mind into a trance like state, nothing feels more magical. When everything comes together like that, a movie can forever change me.


The film Donnie Darko is a great example of a movie that had this effect on me. The surrealism in the directing and the social surrealism in the strange but beautiful dialogue and the odd and awkward moments that would occur in the film. Also visually Donnie darko looks like something out of a dream, and that's what good movies are like for me. Just like a dream, more often than not in movies we never know what occurred before the cameras started rolling or what will occur after the credits roll. Our characters are stuck in that little time frame in which we the viewer can watch and spectate.


Unlike dreams though these moments can be revisited. I think this is the most haunting thing about cinema though, the fact that cinema captures one moment in time to perfection and many decades later we are looking back at actors long dead yet they are on camera as if their joys and struggles are going right now in the present moment. Today with 4K technology it will be all the more haunting as the decades continue to pass. For instance, if mankind were still here in two thousand years and the films of today are well preserved imagine how crazy the experience will be for future generations watching the films of our time. It will be like us watching a movie in crystal clear quality of an historical figure like Jesus walking and talking as if it's going on right now in our present. Cinema is the closest thing to a time machine we will probably ever have.

What makes cinema special for you?

What makes cinema special for me is: movies can be a window back into the past. An old movie is like a time machine that captures the actual moment on film and preserves it. I can see people, places and things from decades passed. I find the behavior and societal norms of the 20th century interesting to watch. I also find the progression of how films change themselves and how they are influenced by current events intriguing.

Another aspect of film that makes it special for me is: Escapism, I sometimes watch films to time travel to another place and time. I don't have a time machine but if I watch an old movie or period piece film it's like traveling to a different time and place and existing there for the duration of the film.

Another reason is: exploration of a genre or director/actors work. There's something satisfying when I watch an actor or directors complete filmography chronologically. It's like being on the journey they took though out their life as they worked in film.

I also love films that have moments where the actors can transcend the screen and make a direct connection to me. It rarely happens but when it does it's a goose bump moment.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, pretty girls are always a plus in movies

Good point about the cultural changes that influence cinema. I learnt recently that the reason actors in films from the 1930s and 40s were very animated in their facial expressions and physical movements is because the style of acting in silent films hadn't fully past yet.

Obviously In Silent movies the actors had to be that way to convey their emotions on screen to compensate for the absence of sound but I found it interesting that even when that style of acting was no longer necessary it still carried on for a decade or two after the silent movie era. It just shows when a style is formed it's not easily shaken away. But I wouldn't have it any other way because that's style of cinema is endearing to watch and really was a trademark of its time.

And yes cinema has produced a lot of beautiful women

Cinema is special to me because it represents the culmination of so many different forms of art. Visuals, writing, music---even sound and timing. When done thoughtfully and with intention, a good film provides me with so much to think about and be affected by that I am able to totally detatch from my day to day problems in life.

Good point about how cinema brings so many different art forms together. This is why I've always thought of cinema as the purest form of art. But this is subjective of course

Now that you mention the word, I almost wonder if a "pure" cinema is possible at all? It feels sometimes as though it is inherently collage-like. But then I watch Bresson... haha

I know what you mean. Andre Tchaikovsky is one of those directors that Is really unorthodox in his approach to film making and will linga on a single shot to have his audience pay attention to every little detail. I suppose I would label him as someone who creates pure cinema, but again it is all a bit subjective Lol


I need to see Bresson

Tarkovsky is another good one for this. Everything is so cohesive in his films.

Film (or any art, really) makes the attempt to bridge the infinite space between all of us. To make the lives of others, both internal and external, known to us.


It's a futile attempt. But it's this futility that makes it beautiful.

For a great film, seeing on the big screen, it's the immersion.

Not sure I could give a solid answer to this question at this point in time, but that my taste in film is very different than just about everyone else my age is certainly a large factor. It's a reminder that I'm unique.

Oh, and I also love watching films.

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Simply put: the variety of the many interpretations of life and art. Art and creativity are deep and reveal a lot about the people behind the art, and movies capture a visual form of the emotions we buy fiction for.

There used to be quite a bit. Now, I tend to pass on "the cinema." It's easier to chillax at home and watch on a smaller screen.

Not just possible but Pure Cinema actually existed!

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Did the composer Andre Tchaikovsky really direct any movies or did you mean Andrei Tarkovsky?

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I feel like rule34 might apply just as much to art history as to... other things... haha

Looks like this was also a thing in Japan around the same time! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Film_Movement

And all these films are lost.

Like tears in rain...

One word: escapism

Whenever I'm having a terrible day, I always get a mental boost as soon as I start to plan my escape for the evening.

The actors and actresses. In a word: performances.

I've said it this before, and it remains true (and doubtless always will): a great film, for me -- much like a great stage play -- unfailingly equals at least one top-notch, forever memorable acting job. In this, I tend to value the director of any given picture considerably less than do most film aficionados. With the obvious exceptions of the very few outright geniuses (Kurosawa, Renoir, etc. -- you surely know the list), a film's director is, from my POV, chiefly a technician; whereas the actor(s)/actress(es) are the essential magic and allure.

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"If it was priggish for an older generation of reviewers to be ashamed of what they enjoyed and to feel they had to be contemptuous of popular entertainment, it's even more priggish for a new movie generation to be so proud of what they enjoy that they use their education to try to place trash within the acceptable academic tradition." -- Pauline Kael

Movies can quite effectively capture awkward silences and i appreciate that.

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"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow." - Agent K.