Cinema As Art

Before I get to the topic, I must validate why I choose to write on this subject, that is cinema. It is because I see Cinema as an Artform, and not merely as a source of entertainment. To which arises the question, what is Art? And to which I must quote the young Marx who said, Art is the greatest pleasure a man can give himself. And pleasure here shouldn’t not be mistaken for entertainment.

It is appalling to see how cinema houses run packed with audience when star-studded movies with absent storylines and minimal thought and perish in their own echoes when rare, thoughtful works are played. The most common excuse we meet to counter such a response is that in a world where one goes through endless ordeals everyday, its unfair to expect deep, profound cinema to find acceptance. One is tempted to ask here, isn’t this an act of both ungratefulness and cowardice to be blatantly ignoring attempts to make one realize the realities of human existence. Must fanciful exaggerations and splendor alone count in as cinema.

The answer to such a question cannot be objective. It must undertake all possible notions and myths that go around, which make cinema a very effective medium. One such myth is that the cinema of Charlie Chaplin is purely slapstick. A second viewing of his works such as The Great Dictator etc sans all possible incumbent prejudices provides a rare insight into the psyche of an autocratic mind; the erratic portrayal reflects a hyper real depiction, unlike the present day caricatures.

For the idea of cinema as art to propagate, it is of primary importance that the didacticism be set aside, and portrayal separated from depiction. To recreate the streets of Dublin, to recreate the feelings of a 2-year old who has lost her way into a cremation ground, to recreate the apathy for death in a Prisoner of War, to imagine the extraterrestrial possibilities and making them intelligible on screen is no mean task.

Cinema today looks to unify all other art forms not by amalgamating them, but by synthesizing them in a manner their individual essence is not lost. Ever since Dali stepped in, and writers like Harold Pinter ventured into this sphere, Cinema has only looked ahead. To pull it down by reducing its limits to mere entertainment is not just an injustice to the men of thought, but the men of action who work to paint these thoughts on canvas. Lest the easel is brought down.