is CINEMA Antiquated and/or a dead art form ?

I think not.

There are perhaps certain antiquated techniques and technologies which it has retained since the start of the last century. The alternatives have as yet failed to completely replace them though, which proves their enduring qualities and importance to the distincit nature of the art form.

Big pictures moving on a big screen.

There is still no subistitute for projected celluloid.

Glasgow's FOREMOST authority Italics = irony. Infer the opposite please.

Take a look at Unfriended (2015) - story told entirely on a computer screen. A lot of people enjoyed it, but no way does the computer replace the cinema screen.

No I don't think you can say that for cinema.

If you are talking about the language of the medium you can see a lot of new and exciting ideas which actually take the art form a step forward, in terms of camera work, editing etc. You can argue that most of this stuff was already used in experimental films or arthouse cinema in general but, as is the case with many art forms, there are a lot of examples of adding extra layers of meaning in existing ideas through re-arranging and connecting them in new ways.

Now cinema, unlike other classic art forms, intergrades elements from other arts such as literature, visual arts, photography and so on, all with the purpose of telling a story through moving pictures. So although it seems that there is not a lot of progress going on actually everytime a script plays with the conventions of storytelling in a innovative way, or the director of photography uses a new way of giving us further meaning in a story through camera angles, cinematic format or set decoration and lighting, the art form that is cinema actually progresses a step forward. And there are a lot of examples of that happening mainly in European and Asian cinema and experimental films.

In the other hand, if you are talking about screening techniques, there is also a lot of stuff going on there as well. There are new types of film and new capturing techniques and as technology progresses there will be a lot of new ways to show the things you want that will provide a more complex experience on film viewing. There are experimental ways to screen movies as well; I remember for example reading some time ago about vertical screening in an art festival in Germany.

So I believe that there is a lot of progress in many aspects of cinema and although a lot of these things have not yet reached their full capabilities, it is in the hands of the new film makers to show us how new techniques can take cinema forward.

Well put, though the vast majority of people seem to have very little interest in the "art" of narrative cinema.

No.

I think, especially in this increasingly fast-paced and technologized world, we as the human race NEED visual and oratory storytelling, and there's no place for storytelling like a darkened cinema movie theater, where we're forced to silence our cell phones and Ipads, sit there for 2+ hours and allow a story on a giant screen to slowly unfold and wash over us. Cinemas are the synagogues of our age. We need to have a place to go and "worship", project our thoughts and emotions into the characters and the story they're creating onto a gigantic screen in front of us.

Watching movies at home and on our mobile devices is OK, but the screens are smaller and there are too many distractions. Going out to see a movie on a giant cinema screen is an EVENT. I think, I hope, there will always be a place in human society for cinema.

My thoughts are, you need to watch more movies.

I think the real question is, are movies art or entertainment? I think the really solid and great films--the ones that go down in history--offer both. That's what makes them special. However, there are plenty of movies that don't straddle that middle ground and fall into either one camp or the other.

The typical summer blockbuster? That's entertainment. But if you branch out of your comfort zone and check out some film festivals and dabble in some foreign movies, you'll see a lot of interesting things. The problem is, Hollywood is a business, and businesses are there to make money. Therefore, they will want to churn out low-risk, high-concept projects to the average Joe in the form of entertainment. I'm not knocking Hollywood, mind you. I like to gobble popcorn in front of some fun entertainment as much as the next guy, but my point is, these movies aren't made with "art" in mind. They're made with turning a profit in mind. Fact.

But filmmakers outside the Hollywood bubble (and even some of those mavericks within) make films their way, with no studio breathing down their necks, and offering suggestions that are neither wanted nor merited. They are usually a bit more innovative and abstract, and concentrate on story, character development, and using the camera to tell the story. They show you more than they tell. And occasionally, some artistic indie or foreign film makes a huge splash in the mainstream market. Hong Kong movies like Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon come to mind. Both Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino started out as indie filmmakers who have gone on to, not only working within the Hollywood system while still (mostly) retaining their integrity, but to become pop culture icons in their own right.

I am a movie lover but not a movie expert. I am not sure that I could define or use all the film terms in the correct way. But it seems to me that many good or excellent movies are still made.

On the other hand, I am also aware that both in number and in proportion the kind of films which I love most have decreased. In the 1960s I could enter all cinemas in a random order, and I could be sure that I would fall in love with half of them.

Today I must search for such movies

“La pianiste” (The Piano Teacher) by Haneke, Michael (France, 2000)

“Roozi ke zan shodam” (The Day I became a Woman) by Makhmalbaf, Marziyeh (Iran, 2000)

“Der Krieger und die Kaiserin” (The Worrier and the Empress) by Tykwer, Tom (Germany, 2001)

“Safar-e Ghandehar” (Journey to Ghandahar) by Makhmalbaf, Mohsen (Iran, 2001)

“Les diables” (The Little Devils) by Ruggia, Christophe (France, 2002)

“Lilja4ever” by Moodysson, Lukas (Sweden, 2002)

“My Life Without Me” by Coixet, Isabel Canada/Spain (2002)

“Sia, le rêve du python” (The Dream of the Python) by Kouyaté, Dani (Burkina Faso/France, 2002)

“Nathalie” by Sautet, Claude (France, 2003)

“Panj é asr” (5 o’clock in the Afternoon) by Makhmalbaf, Samira (Iran, 2003)

“Rosenstrasse” by Trotta, Margarethe von (Germany, 2003)

“Stormy Weather” by Anspach, Solveig (France/Iceland, 2003)

“Sylvia” by Jeffs, Christine (UK, 2003)

“To livadi pou dakryzei” (Weeping Meadow) by Angelopoulos, Theodor Greece/France/Italy, 2003)

“A House of Sand and Fog” by Perelman, Vadim (USA, 2003)

“Die andere Frau” (The Other Wife) by Trotta, Margarethe von (Germany, 2004)

“Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire.” by Raymont, Peter (Canada, 2004)

“Barfuss” by Schweiger, Til (Germany, 2005)

“Caché” (Threat) by Haneke, Michael (France, 2005)

“Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Jude” (A Quite Ordinary Jew) by Hirschbiegel, Oliver (Germany, 2005)

“Joyeux Noël” (Merry Christmas) by Carion, Christian (France, 2005)

“La petite chartreuse” (The Little Chartreuse) by Denis, Jean-Pierre (France, 2005)

“Va, vis et deviens” (Live and Become) by Mihaileanu, Radu (France/Belgium/Israel/Italy, 2005)

“Baiser” (Kissing) by Lay, Stephane Le (France, 2006) [short]

“Coeurs” (Hearts) by Resnais, Alain (France, 2006)

“Das Leben der Anderen” (The Lives of Others) by Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel von (Germany, 2006)

“La tourneuse de pages” (The Page Turner) by Dercourt, Denis (France, 2006)

“Auf der anderen Seite” (At Heaven’s Edge) by Akin, Fatih (Germany/Turkey, 2007)

“Le deuxieme souffle” (The Second Breath) by Corneau, Alain (France, 2007)

“Naissances des pieuvres” (Water Lilies) by Sciamma, Celine (Belgium, 2007)

“La môme Piaf” (Edith Piaf) by Dahan, Olivier (France, 2007)

“Pour Elle” (Anything For Her) by Cavayé, Fred (France, 2008)

“Anita” by Carnevale, Marcos (Argentina, 2009)

“Ciemnego pokoju nie trzeba sie bac” (The Dark Room Is Not Dangerous) by Czekaj, Kuba (Poland, 2009)

“Ehky ya Scheherazade” (Sheherazade, Tell Me a Story) by Nasrallah, Yousry (Egypt, 2009)

“Life, Above All” by Schmitz, Oliver (South African Union, 2009)

“Lourdes” by Hausner, Jessica (France, 2009)

“Illegal” by Masset-Depasse, Olivier (Belgium/Luxembourg/France/White Russia), 2010)

The Flowers of Kirkuk” by Kamkari, Fariborz (Italy/Switzerland, 2010)

“Winter's Bone” by Granik, Debra (USA, 2010)

“Omar m'a tuer” by Zem, Roschdy (Morocco, 2011)

“Paradise Lost, 3: Purgatory” by Berlinger, Joe & Sinofsky, Bruce (USA, 2011)

“Anna Karenina” (musical) by Wright, Joe (USA, 2012)

“La vie d'Adèle” (Blue is the Warmest Colour) by Kechiche, Abdellatif (Tunisia, 2013)


“L'ecume des jours” (Foam of the Days) by Gondry, Michel (France, 2013)


“Kreuzweg” (Stations of the Cross) by Brüggemann, Dietrich (Germany, 2014)

THIS. Posts like this are why I come to IMDB. A list that is half and half films I love and films I haven't heard of or seen.