Speaking Through Art: Part V - Film

I really enjoy film for the main reason that it incorporates so many of my favourite things into one.

Cinematography.
      Music.
             Acting.
         Writing.

But i think the most important out of all of these features of film is the writing. 

the  s c r i p t. 

Script to me isn't solely about the monologue of a character or dialogue between characters.


A well fabricated script, to me, is the +marriage+ - between - the dialogue and the cinematography. Audiences that are oblivious to certain marriages like these in films are not appreciating film for all that it has to offer. 

I remember one late night, i was in my room scanning the channels when i came across the film "American Beauty". 

There is this one character named Ricky that at first appears to be very peculiar. He is always looking at the world through the eye of his video camera. He films everything. Anyone at first sight would get creeped out by him and he was portrayed in this manner during the beginning of the film. 

It wasn't until this one scene that my perspective toward the entire movie really changed and i will never forget it. 

I think for the first time in my life, i witnessed something that perfectly embodied something that i have been trying to articulate for a while. It almost felt as if my thought was being directly stolen out of my head and drawn out onto the screen in front of me. 

My mouth fell, gaping open. I was breathless, in awe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qssvnjj5Moo

I think the cinematography of this scene is brilliant. It absolutely blows me away!

Ricky's chooses to document the meaning of life as he knows it through his films. In this scene he shares a part of his world (one film out of his collection) with a friend from school named Jane. Jane was a victim of his filming at one point and was creeped out, however, at this point they have both taken interest in one another. Normally, Ricky is hiding behind his camera and it is curious to other characters and the audience as to what he is filming and why. In this scene, however, Ricky is not hiding behind his camera, but is opening up for others to see as his film is displayed on a television screen. Ricky and Jane are opening up to each other...

Everything is very still, except for the moving bag. So naturally that is the main focus. The only other thing that is moving are Ricky's lips to speak. Perhaps these two moving elements of the scene are related and provide meaning to say that Ricky speaks through his films.

Can't you see the marriage between the cinematography and the dialogue in the script? 

There are the words of the script and the cinematography of the moving bag as two separate things, but there they were...being put together on my television like a perfect marriage. 

Jane is beside him and she is following the moving bag with her eyes. She is gaining understanding. And then she blinks and turns her head to look at him. This blink represents her fresh perspective of him and the scene is sealed with a kiss. Ricky's moving lips in relation to the moving bag are now met with another pair of lips. This is Jane's way of saying that she understands. This scene was very realistic and the best part is...that this kind of magic doesn't only happen in movie scenes.

It happens in everyday life.

 

Perhaps we all look at the world through a camera as well. 
We let it capture the world for us in the quickest way possible.
But who says that taking the time to pause and take it all in for a few minutes won't be enough?
Modern society is so fast paced that people don't have much time to do that anymore. Or if they do, they're brain is always spinning it's wheels too fast to hold it all in and remember it. Maybe that is what is really trying to be communicated here.

The world is moving around us. And we are moving around with it too.

If we live in this way, we will only see the most apparent beautiful things.

But if we stop ourselves to look at the moving world around us, we can have the right amount of focus and time to see the little things that hold just as much beauty as the big things, if not more...

because we took the time to see them...

and really let them speak to us.

You can talk to people your whole life...

or you can let people speak to you.

You can hear what they are saying...

or you can take the time to listen.

You can go on living remembering what they said...

or you can make the moment last forever and make it a part of you.