Watching Films for More Than Just The Pretty People

What do you do when you watch a movie? Do you watch the movie for the actors, the settings, or are you one of the few people that watch movies for the plot? Every movie, no matter what genre or what age group it’s aimed at has a plot or narrative. Each plot or narrative follows a specific formula in their movies. There is a protagonist that is introduced to the viewer. In most movies you are supposed to relate to the protagonist and have an emotional connection to them. In the movie “Cinema Paraiso,” we are introduced to Toto, a young boy that becomes infatuated with cinema while peeking in on the censoring process of films in the town’s local movie theater.
I felt a connection to this protagonist because I felt as though I was Toto as a child. I felt I had the same level of curiosity and interest that Toto demonstrated in the beginning of the film.
After a protagonist is established, a conflict must arise. The conflict in “Cinema Paraiso” is that Toto is not allowed to learn how to become a projectionist because his mother feels that it is going to ruin his life. Toto, however, fosters a relationship a father-son with the projectionist since Toto’s father has yet to come back from war and is most likely dead.
Throughout the whole movie, the scenes connect to one another, leading up to the final part of the movie when Toto returns to his old town to go to his mentor’s and “father’s” funeral. As he is brought into his house once again, his mother shows him that she put together all his old stuff. He looks through all of the pictures and goes back to his childhood.
I feel like this film has something for everyone. I feel that it touches so many different aspects of Toto’s life that you are able to connect with him. Since the film goes through all of Toto’s life you can pick any point of Toto’s life and try to relate your life to his. Even though there I have yet to live my whole life, many parts of Toto’s life really hit me hard. There were parts in the movie where one could get very emotional and cry. Not that at was at that point while watching the film, but one could still want to cry because of the movie.
This film also had everything one could ask for in a film. It had parts that were funny, parts that were serious, and parts that made you think. I wasn’t expecting to be so engrossed by the film because of the language barrier, but the scenes were so good that they were not ignored even though there were subtitles.

What Do You See?

What is expected from us when we read a novel, shown a photograph, or made to listen to music? Each medium asks us to use one of our senses to think about what the artist wants to say. Films, in the other hand, emerge all of our senses at the same time. With the way people are able to multitask these days, it is very easy to see why films have become one of the more favored mediums to present ideas.

Films have always been able to move people in a way that no novel, photograph, or song possibly could. Films are a direct way for someone to tell you their ideas through a combination of words, images, and sounds. You see through the eyes of the filmmaker and get a sense of what that person is thinking or seeing. All other mediums require you to try to perceive what the author or artist is trying to say or portray to the observer of their specific piece of art.

But why do the masses flock to movie theaters with such an enthusiasm that would never be replicated at a bookstore or museum? That’s because films are able to show you the exact settings, characters, and environments that a filmmaker wants you to see. You are able to connect to characters in films in ways that you were never able to before. Since you are able to see and hear these characters, you do not just have to imagine how these characters might be. You can now relate to a character by how they dress just as much as how they act.

As the technology in filmmaking keeps improving, the methods used to create films keep improving. More and more ideas that were once thought to be impossible to create become easy to bring to life. All of these new techniques allow for films to play with our imaginations in new ways. Films are able to transform what we see in the world as completely ordinary and mundane into something that is visually beautiful. In the film “Fight Club” things such as trash or the barrel of a gun are transformed into captivating images. Films can do this through there ability to change the visual presented to you. Close-ups and panoramic shots are commonplace.

A film such as “Fight Club” is a great example of how films completely affect how we view what is around us. Not only does it just affect how we see the ordinary, but it also makes us think of everything in ways we would never imagine. One would never imagine a world where one’s own mind will create something that completely consumes them. A world where you think you are living one life when in actuality you are living a completely different one, a world where anything and everything is possible. “Fight Club” challenges you to view your own life and question everything around you. The film is telling you to not take everything you see as the truth. When films are able to successfully portray messages like this, they automatically show how they have become a better medium than novels, photographs, or music.