Mind Diary

How To Read A Film 1:
Welcome And Introduction

Introduction:

When we look at a film, a number of elements are working together to produce what we “see” and “hear” and to create moods which guide us through a narrative and encourage us to “feel” a variety of emotions.

There are elements of how a film communicates what is happening in its story.

These different individual elements can be described as devices, which filmmakers deliberately select for a specific purpose and effect.

I like to see films that are true to life, so I watch drama films in order to, hopefully, understand the world and the motives and the nature of human behaviour.

A “real” true to life film is a “Film” — as a form of art. A film that is merely made for entertaining is a "movie".

Finally, I think that there are 8 films which everybody MUST see (and they might change their lives or the way the look at everything):

  1. La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954).
  2. Le Notte de Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1955).
  3. Rocco et soi Fratelli (Luchino Visconti, 1962).
  4. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1957).
  5. L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960).
  6. Swallow (Carlo Mirabella–Davis, 2017).
  7. Dark Waters (Todd Haynes, 2018).
  8. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore–eda, 2018).