The Perspective Movies Bring Us

Sometimes, I feel a sense of enlightenment, a sense of emotional growth, a sense of spiritual fulfillment that manifests an unstoppable drive within the depths of my soul. But other times, my mind is tossed back and forth, strangled by the vapidity and incoherence of it all, a waste of time that, oddly enough, forces me to reevaluate the world that surrounds me. The moment I finish a film, I am inundated by one of two choices: either the film affirms my original beliefs of the world or it alters my conceptions of it. With this being said, there are two types of films that create the eventual ultimatum mentioned. One is the average, flashy, blockbuster flicks that rake in millions of dollars, a moment’s time of your pleasure, and only returns a feeling of discontentment in the end. I see movie-viewers who only thirst for films of this type as pure hedonists or escapists. I am not discounting this practice, but it is less laudable than the other. On the other hand, there are those films created not for external fiscal reasons, but for the purpose of art and exploration. These motion pictures are the ones I crave for, ones that utilize their resources to experiment with various motifs and symbols and themes and styles - I can go on and on! It is only with works of cinema art that attempt to reach out into the human psyche and soul that I am satisfied when the story comes to a close.

Recently I had the opportunity to watch two very interesting films. The first is the ever-popular cult classic Fight Club. Its use of a very nihilistic theme complemented by peculiar characters and dark humor creates an entity that is completely new and original. I had never seen a film like this that reveals the world as a stark and desolate place. But even through this mayhem (cough * project mayhem * cough) the main character is able to find a balance between the materialistic lifestyle that consumed his soul and the destructive nature of his repressed ego, ending in an oddly happy and satisfying note… with large business buildings exploding all around him. The other film was a pleasant surprise. Having been extremely bored and confused by The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Amelie was a shocker to me. I had the preconceived notion that French humor nor themes would affect me in any way. How wrong I was. This movie’s unique style of avoiding a general plot but focusing on the characters and the themes showed me an integral piece of the puzzle that composes my life. Sometimes, my life seems to have no purpose or a guideline – it meanders endlessly in awkward directions and random paths. The movie perfectly captures this feeling of life as it is, without boundaries or rules and just as randomly as life really behaves. Instead, character development is the essential factor of life. Despite the disjointed environment, the people remain a dynamic force who push forward and evolve.

Benjamin Walter, an early 20^th century writer, wrote an interesting piece called The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction that argued the loss of “aura” in films. When transferring the acting onto the big screen, the empowering force of actually being there is lost. This “mechanical reproduction” weakens the poignancy of films, or so he claims. However, today we live in a stage that utilizes computer graphic imaging, blue screen technology, and other techniques that no longer necessarily have any aura to begin with! Do animations have aura? I am not quite sure how Walter would respond to that, but I refuse to accept his belief that films lose their force in the process of being converted. Rather, I feel that each movie is able to contain the entirety of the emanating aura and contain it all in a box, condensed, so when I am introduced to the screen, the amassed force is released upon me all at once. A movie viewing experience emits aura in itself, and they are the perfect tool to reveal the inner truths and potencies of the world’s capabilities, molded by the imagination of the filming crew.