The Genesis

I'm in 10th grade Chemistry class, way in the back, and I am dead to the world. The latter phrase works here as a sort of "double entendre"- I had become completely desensitized to school (and most other things) and I was,literally, fast asleep! Up until that time in my life I had played the part of the devoted scholar, earning nothing less than a B since 1st grade. School, homework, was my forte and I took a certain pride in my abilities. I was also a comic book collector and a rather serious one at that. I had amassed thousands of issues, Marvel posters were ubiquitously thrown onto my walls, and I frequently wore, much to the perplexity of my classmates (the uninitiates), my Cerebus T-shirt (a representative and renowned piece of my esoterica). Acting as a subcurrent just below my passion for comics was my fascination with cinema. In my household, one watched movies all the time, either on T.V. or on scratchy Memorex. Also, watching the annual Academy Awards was ritualistic as was debating the winners/losers afterward.


As I stated earlier, in about 10th grade, something changed in me. I simply stopped caring. Stopped caring about school, homework, pleasing people,etc. I simply wanted to escape from a world that seemed painted, or should I say caked, in lugubrious tones and shades. That, compounded with the fact that I was maturing, or at least I thought I was mature, precipitated me to sell my voluble (and I rationed "infantile") comics collection for an insanely small price (I believe it was around $300). I had a plan for all this money: buy movies. My reason for this was twofold: movies were the ultimate form of escapism and it satiated the compulsive collector in me. I 've ALWAYS had to collect something (now it is books), and movies seemed an acceptable, and more mature, successor to comics at the time. I had asked my mother to buy a certain movie for me while she was at the mall and I would pay her back for it when she came home. The movie was Amadeus and my first viewing of it changed my life.

I chose Amadeus because it dealt with a weighty, "artsy" subject, Mozart, and it had won many Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor. I found as I watched it, that I felt elated, moved, in ways that I have never experienced before. After I a while, I was able to pinpoint the source of these emotions. It was the magic of cinema and its uncanny ability to marry music, editing, lighting, writing, mise en scene, and acting into a harmonious whole. Naysayers would call it emotional manipulation, but I don't concur with this opinion. The elation comes when all these elements have unitedly and harmoniously expressed universal and what acclaimed German director Werner Herzog coins "ecstatic" human truths. Take, for example a scene from Amadeus. Antonio Salieri, once upon a time the illustrious court composer to the Emperor, is now an old man in a wheelchair, in a sparsely furnished room of a sanitarium (he has just tried to kill himself, believing he was guilty for Mozart's death), talking to a nebbish priest. He recounts the time when he first encountered the precocious, childish Mozart and his music at a concert held in an opulent salon. After the recital is over, Salieri surreptitiously strolls up to one of the podiums and looks at the notes on the page. He waves his hand in time, and hears the notes unfold beautifully in his mind (and we hear it on the soundtrack). The camera zooms in on the young Salieri's face as he is brought to tears by the pastoral beauty and musical genius of the composition. He alone, in a room full of aristocrats and sycophants, recognizes Mozart as "God's instrument on Earth".(F. Murray Abraham, who plays Salieri, is brilliant in this scene. He won the The Best Actor Oscar for this role and richly deserved it). This recognition by Salieri of his own mediocrity sets in motion a string of events that eventually leads to Mozart's demise. Scene after scene of this glorious film displayed such nuance of acting, such daring and insidious writing which dared to plumb the depths of the human soul, and such a brilliant aesthetic, that by the end of the viewing, I was emotionally drained!

Since that viewing, I have honed my critical acumen through watching many films from many different genres. I also realized that the power of cinema could transcend language barriers by watching and worshipping the films of Fellini, Kurosawa,Ozu, Bergman, Bunuel, and Herzog. All great visualists but, most importantly, all great HUMANISTS! What both pisses me off and perplexes me is that still, to this day, most people don't see film as an art form, a legitimate art form. I can honestly say that I've seen films that have moved me as much as a Rembrandt painting or a novel of Dickens or Dostoevsky. Well-construted films contain great themes, powerful writing, indelible images, and transcendent acting that bravely present the human condition. If people would stop limiting the efficacy of cinema by thinking of it as simply a diversion or brainless escape, they could really engage, and even enhance, their emotional and cognitive faculties.

What I can do to achieve this legitimacy is be absolutely perspicacious in my blog in trying to disseminate the power of film to the masses. There are many great filmmakers out there, notably Martin Scorsese and Mike Leigh, with something pretty darned imaginative and meaningful to say. We need only listen with a willing mind and an open heart.