[The Film & its Double II]

 Mainstream film today can be said to have hit an impasse; that is, the cheap, careless, profit-hungry recreations overwhelmed with special effects and graphics as opposed to the depth of story and creation. A film loses its soul when an artless suit ahead of a studio company has the ability to alter a story line and thus spit in the face of art. A solid mainstream film is a far and between phenomena to encounter nowadays but in independent film, much is underrated and that much makes all the difference between a film and an imitation of it.

  To "speak" a language is to use it, but to "speak" cinematographic language is to a certain extent to invent it. This invention, as something viable, something effectively and vitally mechanically fixed, because ineffectual if tampered with, a liability bound to backfire and injure its user. It seems the art critic is the only species of humans aware of most of this, printing reviews that seemingly go unread, spouting monologues to closed ears in awe of diluted tales in which are not privy to the originals. It has be theorized that sequels endanger originals but it is only in modern film, where the sequels are forfeited their origin in place of blood, gore and predictable outrage and disaster, that originals are truly endangered of poor rewrites. It is not the filmmaker who must remain true to a promising tale but the audience must become more keen to demand that that very tale is given wholly, not just breadcrumbs swept to the floor.

An example of how the tale losses its purpose can be seen in the Grimm's tales; where Cinderella is seen as a beauty becoming, Snow White a woman waking to her dream, and Hansel and Gretel beating the odds through a dark, perilous and enchanted forest; Cinderella's sisters had their feet cut off to feet properly into set-sized shoes, Snow White was raped in her sleep by her royal lover and Hansel and Gretel were held captive by blind cannibals. In dilution we find treason, a mutiny, a lie served on a hot platter with cheap wine that gives us momentary thrills and blinding, regrettable headaches the morning after.

There most respectable thing about Rotten Tomatoes is their ranking of audience approval, giving voice to not only the film critic but the people, the consumers, the many who are pulled up by film trailers of upcoming major films, planning their lives around it. It is then recognized that if life is about seeking a happiness with the likeness of the womb, or effectively a "paper womb," they deserve to walk into a theatre and be pulled from reality, into art, return to reality with a greater idea of their life.

A film is meant to bring one closer to oneself, even in spite of self

Dontrell Lovet't

from, [PsychoNeuroFilmography]