Film is a new industry, but art has been here a long time. Films often are forms of art. Does the filmmaker express himself, or does the self 'escape' into the film and play out it's fantasy, taking it home to 'life' to roost. You're thoughts?...

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo@aol.com), December 30, 2000

Answers

First of all, thanks for using this forum, I thought it might take awhile for people to visit, but you guys have proven me wrong.

Of course, life imitates film and film imitates life. It goes both ways. Films, depending on how popular they become, can drastically influence "real life". Films imitate life almost out of necessity, because, for one, it's difficult, maybe even impossible, to depict something completely outside the realm of human comprehension. Every piece of art is based in our world to some degree or another. Still, I think a strength of art, and film, is that it can hint at something beyond, something we have no concept of, even if it can't exactly depict it in completely nonhuman terms. That's something I'd really like to do someday in a film.

-- Matthew Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), January 01, 2001.

I think it's usually both if the filmaker is going for art, but we wont discuss what art is at this point, that is like discussing the breathing of air. But take Kubrick for example, he was a professional photographer for years befor he started making films. And his films, even the big productions, are like photographs where the photographer has no control over the elements but manges to make a composition that makes it wonderfull to look at in adition to the interesting subject matter. He was allways trying to capture that by doing many many takes and incouraging improv. There are so many factors envolved in film : Photography, Music, people, science, that is the wonderfull thing, one is enveloped... If De Vinci were alive today he would be a film maker?!

-- Sean "Eisenstine" Merli (smerli@earthlink.net), December 31, 2000.

This reminds me of the old argument that kids get violent behavior from watching TV. I'd be lying if I said children don't imitate what they see on the tube. Not that I'm gonna start advocating the V-chip or anything. Of course, it does the same for older kids. My mom told me that the movie Clueless completely changed the way people talked. (I personally can't remember anytime I've heard anyone say "as if" before it came out.) I could also swear that people at school started saying "dude" a lot more after South Park appeared. Maybe it's just my imagination.

-- Frostbite a.k.a. Frosty the Snow Chick (mbkrooks@bellsouth.net), March 22, 2001.