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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Bunjov AT aol.com wrote:
>  
> I have trouble, on the one hand - in one level of my brain - recognizing  
> cinema as an art form. Something tells me if it's not written, or sculpted, or  
> painted, or cooked from scratch, it ain't art.
>  
> The other level of my brain says that if these people, who I dearly love  and 
> admire, consider film to be 'art', that they must be right. I can see a  
> 'still' as being art, but the minute it starts to move, it gets all cartooney in  
> my head.

Perhaps the artistry of it is the way the message is conveyed.  I know 
you like to read, the artistry is similar in that you have the words, 
the symbolism(visual), the facial expressions, the plot, the setting, etc.


>  
> Dialogue is something else. It can be written - and therefore can be read. 

In film, the actors do the reading for you.  They interpret the 
inflexion that a line has.  Their interpretation is artistic. Think of 
De Niro in Taxi Driver...the "are you talking to me" lines...very 
classic...now imagine the same scene with Richard Dreyfuss doing the 
same lines...VERY Different.  Only DeNiro...  There are many bond 
movies, but there is only ONE Sean Connery..lol..I would drink his 
bathwater, I think. ;)


>  
> I am sure a lot of this nonsense stems from being allowed to read under the  
> covers with a flashlight (like the grown-ups didn't KNOW). I spent my  
> after-school hours at the tiny local library, and the librarian was a little old  
> lady who was a regular dinner guest.

I think it a bit sad that you had no one to share your pleasure with. 
Film allows multiple people to experience something, hopefully the same 
thing, at the same time...the pleasure, fright, laugh, etc. is shared.

>  
> I swept up every day, just to help out. We had a chart by the front door  (of 
> the library) where 'readers' got a gold star for each book they read, and -  
> at the end of the week - the 'winners' would get a prize - which I now realize 
>  was just a cheap little gold charm from the neighborhood five-and-dime.  But 
> they were real gold to me. I came away with the enjoyment of the  reading 
> itself, and the praise of the adults, which was priceless then, and  probably not 
> worth much now.
>  
> Part of the deliciousness of the written word.

Film is not better than the written word, just different.


>  
> I didn't 'get' the parts of this thread having to do with lesbians or any  
> other such - will have to go back when I have time and see whassup.

No worries my friend.  But if you have a VCR or a DVD, rent In and Out 
for a good laugh and maybe a cry at the end.

Bev
--
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from 
the government and I'm here to help.'"  Ronald Reagan