They know movies and it would be easier in "Movies & Films" to start with the motion pictures, but how to talk about it without film grammar? So, the first part -- movies. Second, films. Third -- culture?
200X Aesthetics -- intro, Film Directing Class -- above, upper level. Film Analysis -- in the middle: Film & Movies. I will be using this page, when I teach the class (Spring 2003).
Read POV
... or Read 200x Files: Aesthetics (Core Intro): Theatre & Art through Film
I pity the French Cinema because it has no money. I pity the American Cinema because it has no ideas. --Jean-Luc Godard
Notes
"Fin de Cinéma." (the end of "Weekend" by Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Cinema as an art form is dead. It has been dead for some years now (although NOT corresponding to the timing of Jean-Luc Godard's famous statement.) Cinema's official death can arguably be linked to the passing of the legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, who almost single-handedly kept the pure flame of cinema art alive. With the subsequent death of Sergei Paradjanov, the "retirement" of Ingmar Bergman and the recent deaths of Robert Bresson and Akira Kurosawa, there is virtually no one out there willing to answer the true calling of cinema as a spiritual art form, as a way of seriously seeking and probing into the great questions of existence (the one possible exception being the film "Mother and Son" by Alexander Sokurov.)
Perfectly reflecting the present state of humanity, the cinema of today has moved past the great questions of existence and into capturing life as an adventure, as a thrill. Thus genuine seeking has been replaced by thrill-seeking (i.e. the stimulation of the senses.) And the general trend is towards greater and greater thrill-seeking as more of the spiritual deadness sets in. Is there no end to the gargantuan amounts of trivial, sordid matter filling every neighborhood movie screen and every household television set!? The question of what cinema could have evolved into now seems almost pointless in the wake of its wreckless demise. Fortunately, there is still a large handful of truly worthwhile seeking films, which have been made in years past (most available on video), to make cinema a powerful tool for probing into the meaning of our existence.
In the cinema of today, however, the general public is swept along into the most indolent mode of living: indulging their personal dreams, fantasies and wishes as a substitute for seeking out the true answers to the questions of life beyond the visible boundary. And how much more pleasant it is to engage one’s imagination than to undertake a serious search for answers to the agonizing questions of one’s spirit!
As Jean-Luc Godard stated in his 1987 film "King Lear":
"We're in a time now, when movies, and more generally art, have been lost, do not exist. And must somehow be re-invented."
[ from questers ]
film n 1: a form of entertainment that enacts a story by a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement; "they went to a movie every Saturday night"; "the film was shot on location" [syn: movie, picture, moving picture, motion picture, picture show, flick] 2: a medium (art or business) that disseminates moving pictures: "theater pieces transferred to celluloid"; "this story would be good cinema"; "film coverage of sporting events" [syn: cinema, celluloid] 3: a base of celluloid covered with a photographic emulsion; used to make negatives or transparencies [syn: photographic film] 4: a thin coating or layer; "the table was covered with a film of dust" 5: a thin sheet of (usually plastic and usually transparent) material used to wrap or cover things [syn: plastic film] v 1: make a film or photograph of something; "take a scene"; "shoot a movie" [syn: shoot, take] 2: record in film; "The coronation was filmed"
movie n : a form of entertainment that enacts a story by a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement; "they went to a movie every Saturday night"; "the film was shot on location" [syn: film, picture, moving picture, motion picture, picture show, flick]
Movies...
Notes for FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
James Bond and the COLD WAR (old notes, during the Film Club screening)
Why British? CIA and FBI are too close to home to place in
fantasy style and the irony. We have serious grievances with
both. Her Majesty Secret Service is already half unreal, but on
our side. The sixties were the return of the British, but
cultural invasion. This type of hero must be a little bin alien,
we have to cross the border of the fairy-tale land.
The message. The hero is still out there to protect the
good, the country, the innocent. Is this an advertisement and
propaganda. Bad and good guys. Nazis were replaced by the
commies. Two identifiable super-powers, easy to take sides and
history provided us with many anecdotes.
Genre: Spy Stories. Odyssey, Trojan Horse. Guns, woman, new
technology -- the horse is replaced by cars, planes, rockets.
How new is our hero? Old law -- he must not die or even
defeated.
Fairy-tales principles never changed.
For the good of the country and human race, which we
represent.
Woman is a prize and means. The true reward -- adventure,
risk, victory. What a profession!
Psychology -- ever cool.
Physical violence -- graphic and getting more graphic every day.
The Nature of Visions.
Do we care that events and his actions are impossible? On
the contrary -- I want the impossible! We don't reality, that is
too scary. The real questions ask for real answers, we need to
COVER the real problems, we need to forget about them, even if
it's for a couple hours -- let us not to think how serious our
situation is. Fear, Aristotle would say -- horror, is the
basis of fantasy mentality. Our mind is shocked and asks for
pain-killers. How else can we deal with something we can't change?
Historicity. How to take the real danger of the nuclear
holocaust.
The forms.
Film as media is perfect for recreating new mythology:
action and open conflict.
theatre theory and 
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