Day: February 11, 2010

Movies and Film. What's the Difference?

This topic comes up a lot when I’m talking to non-filmwatching folk. I use the words Film and Movie interchangably in my speech. But there is a reason. There’s a solid diffrence between Films and Movies.

I look at it like this. Films are art. Movies are not.

It’s like when you would draw pictures for your mom in 1st grade art class. It was fun. You enjoyed it, and your mom loved the kind gesture and put it up on the fridge or something. This is the equivilent of a movie.

Film is like going to the art museum. Everything is ment to be carefully examined and admired. Everything is extrodenaraly special. No two are alike. And you can look back on it on talk about how awesome it was. This is Film. Film is art.

Can you have Movies and Art go hand and hand?

Yes, but they come only a few times a year.

Naked Cinema? *Mind in gutter*

When someone releases a totally self indulgent passion project, I tend to raise an eyebrow. I always give a nod of the head to anyone with the balls to really push things. A person with the gumption to do what hasen’t been done. I’ve come to repect Sally Potter a lot for doing things like this, doing her part to advance this art form we call cinema. Well, this new genre she calls “Naked Cinema” I really can’t describe it unfortunately. Think of it as cross between those video diaries on The Real World with the melodrama of a soap opera… plus a blue screen.

In the movie… a schoolboy uses his cellphone camera to shoot intimate interviews with people working at a New York fashion house and secretly posts them on the internets. Result: a bitterly funny expose of an industry in crisis, during a week in which an accident on the runway becomes a murder investigation, and denial leads to devastation.

Why not have a movie… with one set. One camera and one angle? This is what RAGE does and does surprisingly well. Though I think the excellent camera work and slighting irritating bluescreen would have been a moot point if it weren’t for great performances from Judi  Dench, Eddie Izzard, and others… especially Jude Law in drag. He needs to do that more often.

The movie starts off pretty slow but really ramps up at about 45 minutes. But then it seems like not enough. But that’s just how it goes.

Porn for the soul. Not just anyone can get up and decide they want to change how things are done. Glad to see I’m not the only one. This movie isn’t for the mainstream Joe for sure. But those interesting in seeing what may be the future should take a couple of hours and give this a try.

A+