Nothing is better than settling down after a long day and watching a movie. Something that acts as white noise while you turn off your brain, right? WRONG. Films in themselves should be taken seriously as a medium of art by general audiences. Too often, we find ourselves critiquing aspects of films that often snub the true artistic meaning. Yes, there are movies made for entertainment, but watching quality films that try to capture life’s beauty is no different than admiring a painting or reading a book. According to the Auteur Theory, films are passion projects, every scene oozing with never-before-seen visuals courtesy of many voices, mainly the director’s—the distinct voices of incredible filmmakers. The idea is that we must appreciate films more than we do today in society, with social media demolishing our attention spans, and at least try to respect the intentions and expressions of the filmmakers. Therefore, I will cover two aspects of film that anyone can examine to hopefully gain a greater understanding of what makes us love movies so much.
First, we must try to gain an understanding of the ways that cinema speaks to us. Cinema is subjective, and to us, it is still a mystery. There will only sometimes be a right answer. Instead, we have commonly used forms of expression that help convey emotion through the camera. It starts with shots, which are one of, if not, the most basic units of motion pictures. There are many different types of shots and angles that we must observe. They may have a subject in full frame or a close-up. It could be at various angles, high or low. These devices of expression mean different things in other contexts, similar to that of our everyday vernacular. However, we must at least attempt to appreciate, realize, and truly search for what an artist is telling us through the eyes of the lens.
Secondly, we should explore the meaning of these films. The Moving Pictures: An Introduction to Cinema textbook divides a film’s meaning into two: implicit and explicit. As scholars, we recognize both of these in all forms of art, whether it be a novel, a painting, or even music. While it seems quite laborious in English class to discern the two, it is quite necessary and interesting to find these meanings in motion pictures. Take To Kill a Mockingbird, for example. The novel and the film follow Atticus, an attorney defending a black man, and his family, and how they stand out in a seemingly backward society. But English teachers always seem to beg the question: who was the mockingbird, or more so, who were the mockingbirds? At its bare bones, it is a story of innocence and injustice in America, exploring hatred and how it should be eradicated. This here is implicit meaning, and it can only be beneficial to find meaning in all works of art, including film.
Cinema, and movies in general, are somewhat trapped in this idea that they are merely forms of entertainment when they are so much more. A film can be just as boring as a book or a painting, but we automatically depreciate it simply because it does not fulfill the notion that they are only made to entertain and stimulate. Instead, I, and many other cineastes, propose that we admire cinema for the art that it is. To understand and recognize films as a form of communication with an audience. To see it through a lens like no other. To realize cinema as an art.
