Christopher SoallA rambling wonder about escaping reality in film
October 5th 2008 15:06
I'm not sure what I want in a film. Do I want to escape into fantasy or be immersed in another person's reality.
In hollywood films there is a real sense of unreality. The formulaic nature of this cinema often bores me. My fun in watching these films comes now post cinema studies in picking them to pieces. I'm always predicting what the character will say or do next and so often I am write. The lines are so contrived, The characters are so stereotypical. Everyone is just a representation of an image of American life. Is this image a reflection of their reality. It receive it as a fantasy. It's all so exaggerated, loud, flashy and larger than life. Maybe reality is only dependent on the person who defines it.
So often the plot of American films is so tight so action driven and from one main characters viewpoint this I can safely say does not convey a sense of reality, life just doesn't unfold like that. Maybe that is what appeals. The characters have the words I would have like to have comeback to someone with at the time, Words that in life are never punctual usually hitting you on the head two oclock the next morning. And people never say what they should have said, In life I think they would have said it not just stood there like a stunned mullet then walked off. American films carry you so quickly from beginning to middle to end. Life is not at all so well ordered
Chinese and French Cinema reflects this which always makes me favour these films and those of other national cinema's as being a better representation of reality. The camera stands still long enough to allow the characters to breath and live on the screen. There is often an equal focus on different characters viewpoints and this enrichens the depth of engagement you find with the characters and more time is often taken to display their location, to bring the viewer inside the place. Being brought into another reality is eyeopening cultivating understanding.
I feel I respond with more genuine emotion to one of these films than a hollywood film in which I only become involved with the characters at the level of them being characters. I would never imagine them to be real people so I never really feel real emotions in response to their situations only melodramatic ones.
I enjoy their drama yet often I can get irritated and impatient. I'm wary of beginning to watch a romance or drama as I know the beginning will show the idealic, happy perfect part of the peoples lives and I feel overshadowing this the knowledge that any minute something is going to go wrong and there will be misunderstanding and anger and hate because if it didn't there would't be a film. Yet I can't always find the energy to watch all that, I'd rather fast forward to the happy ending. I guess the suspense to keep you watching is will there be one.
I know that I don't want in a film my own reality because I did opt to go and see a film in the hopes of escaping it. I can't understand reality TV shows popularity. It makes me shudder to think what a pack of zombies everyone is if they can sit down everynight to watch very ordinary people just existing and people who have so few appealing attributes.
I guess I'm just nostalgic for the hollywood of the past, when the Actors were so far removed from reality they were like gods and godesses and no reality was expected of them you could just escape your own reality in the story they presented.
When I think of reality in regards to film it starts to feel overwhelming and gives me a headache there are so many layers and I don't think it is relevant. I think I most desire to be immersed in another person's world view, not necessarily the characters, probably the director's. But this can't happen unless the characters feel genuine and not just barbie dolls reading lines. The recognisability of an actor can really complicate this process. If their personality is appealing it can work so long as you always expect them to be that person and watch with that idea in your mind.
I do wonder though how I can judge because what feels contrived to me might really be a reality I just have no experience of. in which case they are being genuine it just seems like a joke to me because of the reality in which I am viewing it from.
In hollywood films there is a real sense of unreality. The formulaic nature of this cinema often bores me. My fun in watching these films comes now post cinema studies in picking them to pieces. I'm always predicting what the character will say or do next and so often I am write. The lines are so contrived, The characters are so stereotypical. Everyone is just a representation of an image of American life. Is this image a reflection of their reality. It receive it as a fantasy. It's all so exaggerated, loud, flashy and larger than life. Maybe reality is only dependent on the person who defines it.
So often the plot of American films is so tight so action driven and from one main characters viewpoint this I can safely say does not convey a sense of reality, life just doesn't unfold like that. Maybe that is what appeals. The characters have the words I would have like to have comeback to someone with at the time, Words that in life are never punctual usually hitting you on the head two oclock the next morning. And people never say what they should have said, In life I think they would have said it not just stood there like a stunned mullet then walked off. American films carry you so quickly from beginning to middle to end. Life is not at all so well ordered
Chinese and French Cinema reflects this which always makes me favour these films and those of other national cinema's as being a better representation of reality. The camera stands still long enough to allow the characters to breath and live on the screen. There is often an equal focus on different characters viewpoints and this enrichens the depth of engagement you find with the characters and more time is often taken to display their location, to bring the viewer inside the place. Being brought into another reality is eyeopening cultivating understanding.
I feel I respond with more genuine emotion to one of these films than a hollywood film in which I only become involved with the characters at the level of them being characters. I would never imagine them to be real people so I never really feel real emotions in response to their situations only melodramatic ones.
I enjoy their drama yet often I can get irritated and impatient. I'm wary of beginning to watch a romance or drama as I know the beginning will show the idealic, happy perfect part of the peoples lives and I feel overshadowing this the knowledge that any minute something is going to go wrong and there will be misunderstanding and anger and hate because if it didn't there would't be a film. Yet I can't always find the energy to watch all that, I'd rather fast forward to the happy ending. I guess the suspense to keep you watching is will there be one.
I know that I don't want in a film my own reality because I did opt to go and see a film in the hopes of escaping it. I can't understand reality TV shows popularity. It makes me shudder to think what a pack of zombies everyone is if they can sit down everynight to watch very ordinary people just existing and people who have so few appealing attributes.
I guess I'm just nostalgic for the hollywood of the past, when the Actors were so far removed from reality they were like gods and godesses and no reality was expected of them you could just escape your own reality in the story they presented.
When I think of reality in regards to film it starts to feel overwhelming and gives me a headache there are so many layers and I don't think it is relevant. I think I most desire to be immersed in another person's world view, not necessarily the characters, probably the director's. But this can't happen unless the characters feel genuine and not just barbie dolls reading lines. The recognisability of an actor can really complicate this process. If their personality is appealing it can work so long as you always expect them to be that person and watch with that idea in your mind.
I do wonder though how I can judge because what feels contrived to me might really be a reality I just have no experience of. in which case they are being genuine it just seems like a joke to me because of the reality in which I am viewing it from.
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