Why movies are so important? And which ones?
Sometimes, the people around me ask me why I don’t like normal movies or why I like movies that nobody likes and they, most of the time, do these questions in a rethorical way, without really wanting to know the answear, maybe because they are just being bigots. But I’m used with that.
The majority of people prefer go to the movie theaters to have fun, and usually that includes watch genres like action, comedy or horror. And I do understand that, but I want to say why movies are so important to me, and which ones.
Since one of my friends present me with a list with her top movies that I must watch (yes! The friendship would be over if I didn’t), my taste for movies changed completely, and I have to say that I never was the same.
I never was a fan of movies until that day. I had my favorites ones, most of them were sci-fi movies. Just like everybody, when I thought about movies, what popped into my mind was fun: what movie will provide me more pleasure?
After watch such movies like:
- 12 Angry Men;
- A Clockwork Orange;
- American Beauty;
- Die Welle;
- Donnie Darko;
- La Piel que Habito;
- Memento;
- Perfect Sense;
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer;
- Poker House;
- Réquiem for a dream;
- Shame.
I started to enjoy movies in another way. Movies nevermore were just fun. They started to mean: imagination, critical thinking, perspective, reality, opportunity! And I really want that people in general stop to have this miss concept of movies are just about fleeting fun.
Yes, they are funny. But not in this ridiculous thinking that there are just three type of fun:
- Scares
- Laughs
- Jitters
Movies are like a book, but in the books the director is you. You have to imagine all the world, the characters, the scenes. It is a really good sensation feel that you are responsible by the story. I think that is the reason for people like books so much. We like to have the control. We are the audience and the director at the same time, and that is just awesome.
But movies… well, movies are the opportunity of let a real director show to you his perspective of that story. And that is also fabulous. Every movie has a such different sensation and perspective.
It is not just about the story, it is about the path until you got at the point that you look to screen and say: well, I learned/felt something new!
Can be a new feeling, a new idea, a new perspective about things that you already know, or a different way of tell a story. Again: It is about the path, not the result.
You can hate the final. You can hate how slow the movie goes. But look to the big picture. What did you see? Did you notice that camera moving in a shaky way, or the actors being the characters and not just acting? Did you notice how the music changed with the scenario? How the scenario followed the characters feelings? How the cuts were made to drag you to the story? Or even worst, how the director punched you right at the stomach and you felt disgusting, trying to stop the movie?
Of course, sometimes there is no director, no actor, no movie professional that can make you open the eyes. But that is because we are full of prejudgment, trying to put our perspective inside the movies instead of accept the entire experience.
Watch movies it is not about choose the story that you want to feel. It is about let someone tell you a story in a way that you could not even imagine!
Does not matter! When you are in a movie theater, the one really bad movie are those that don’t give you a completely different sensation.
The people watch movies expecting fun. But I expect a scission! It is about a story that you don’t know how you will feel during the projection. Better than that. Like every story, every people will have a different judgement about the movie, probably no one will capture the whole picture that the director, actors and all involved wanted to give to you. But that it is the point! The message was passed, sometimes we understand it, sometimes we go beyond, sometimes we just don’t know even how to start to understand it, sometimes we have a new big idea about something! What matters it’s that a little part of your heart/mind changed in a way that maybe you will never notice, but that will help to construct your character, mind and perspective of life.
Movies are a great opportunity to learn about life, people, and the stories involving this two entities. It is time to get seriously about movies and how they can provide an amazing experience, just like the others arts. Movies are the seventh art, as Ricciotto Canudo said: the movies are a art synthesis that conciliate the others one.
It is not just a spectacle for the masses, it is a still new concept of art, that we must learn to appreciate.
Of course, there will be movies that you’ll like just because of the scares, or laughs, and every single part that just make you don’t feel the time pass. But don’t miss that piece of heaven (or even hell) that will transform your day and your life.
Watch movies! And do differently every single time!
P.S.: Thank you for my friend L.D. that made me see the world in another way, made my passion about movies be awakened and helped me with the review of this text.
