Love for Movies

You sit down with a blank page in front of you. Ready to be filled with your own creative vision. A vision is personal. It comes through you. It takes over you. Not that it actually came from you. But rather, it was waiting for you to receive it. And to channel it. That’s the way I like to approach it.

I could almost call a movie a symphony. As it plays in front of me, I want to tune my own instrument and join the band when the time is right. Except that in other people’s movies, there is no part for me. I am just the witness. What is required of me?

Openness.

I may agree or disagree. I may have a hard time understanding the purpose of a scene or a character’s behavior. It doesn’t matter. A vision is being offered and it is my duty to acknowledge it, to see where the director is coming from, why it makes me react, why I am being taken over, why I am moved.

What is a movie?

When I think of it, I go straight to the magic realm – the ability for a group of people to come together and bring a story to life, each person playing their own part, as best as they can, the director conducting the assembly.

Movies are the combination of two of my favorite things in the world – images and sound. By sound, I mostly mean music. A moving image entering an intimate dance with music, following the beats of a story. No one really takes the lead, although the skeleton is what dictates the general rhythm of the piece. Skeleton made out of words. Words carefully put together on a page to support the whole creation.

Who would we be without words? I can’t even imagine a wordless world.

When I watch a movie, I want to offer myself to that new world. Fully. Wholeheartedly. That’s why I like to do it on my own. I want to feel the characters, I want to keep an eye for the craft and most of the time, I want to be brought to my knees. Until the final notes of the soundtrack tell me it’s okay to make my way back into reality.

Am I extreme?

My love for movies is still pretty vivid. I was craving depth and meaning as a little girl. I still do. The beauty of the shot. A sunray landing on someone’s cheek, at the perfect moment, lighting up the whole spirit of the part. The left-behind character making one bold move that will change the course of the story.

I watch it all, eyes open, heart open. And I’m gone.