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it is recognized that you have a funny
sense of fun
cinema is the most prestigious cultural
activity in the modern world it is for
us what theater was in the age of
Shakespeare or painting was in the days
of Leonardo da Vinci the art form with
the biggest impact the largest budgets
and the most widespread audiences
collectively we recognized that film has
an astonishing power to induce emotion
but it would sound weird to stop and ask
or film was really for what purpose it
serves in our societies and why we spend
so much time in its presence we don't
generally think of films are serving any
very strenuous or serious cause we ask
for a lot of nice but not terribly
lasting things of films to wile away the
hours of a long flight to keep the
family together on the sofa to give us a
bit of a thrill this is a great loss for
us and for cinema itself we should try
to pin down more accurately what films
actually do for us then make sure we're
reliably making and finding our way to
seeing the best that is the most useful
kinds of films we would ideally accept
that film like all the other art forms
best reveals its power when we conceive
of it as a kind of therapy let's
consider five key problems and how films
can help us with them we're
understandably prone to self-pity we get
ground down and frustrated by the
problems life throws at us and we tend
to react by getting ever more Stern and
serious certain films can beautifully
address this natural tendency when they
show us people not too different from
ourselves in difficult situations except
very much unlike us these films play our
pains for love's
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they seek the absurd side of the exact
things that we normally greet with
excessive seriousness at their best
there's nothing trivial about these
comedies at all they take on the
momentous task of sweetly edging us
towards being slightly nicer people to
live around you have three seconds to
get back to your seat you can't get
anywhere in three seconds
well you better trust setting me up for
a loss already hey thank you whatever
you say
still it's Steve stow what a kind of
name is that sometimes in life an action
that seems quite small goes on to have
enormous consequences you tell a little
lie you steal tiny bit you're a bit
dishonest with someone you get a bit
lustful and carried away just once and
then from this a catastrophe ensues
films can help us by speeding up time
and showing us in a matter of hours the
fearsome result of what we might
originally have thought of as small
failings a film can push the
consequences to the maximum a witnessing
horror and disaster it can make us want
to be the kind of person who is a touch
more forthright a little more honest and
moral ready to face an unpleasant moment
now and thereby head off a distant
disaster
leave the cinema less inclined to be
self-righteous about the failings of
others
scared for ourselves and more respectful
towards things we hold dear it might
sound odd but it's usually very healthy
and helpful to feel that one's life is a
bit special deserving of admiration and
respect a little glamorous but very
often the opposite is the case
glamour lies elsewhere in the lives of
the famous in swankier parts of town in
activities and jobs far removed from our
own film has an enormous power to
glamorize it can put in front of our
eyes delightful images many meters in
size shot in extraordinary colors vivid
in immediate because so many films
glamorize the wrong things we're used to
thinking that an element of alienation
and corruption is a generic rather than
an incidental danger of cinema but in
fact film is well able to show us the
less obvious but real charms of an
everyday life whereas the worst sort of
films eject us back into our lives
full of longing and disenchantment the
best ones leave us ready to re-engage
with circumstances with which we done
fairly grown born
cinema can help us love and appreciate
what we already have it's not entirely
our own fault the media is to blame for
much of it because it tells us about
categories of people we want nothing to
do with places that seem frightening
bizarre unremittingly depressing we grow
to think we're not at all interested in
people in Iran or Venezuela our
disenchantment may get expressed as
racism or arrogance or just plain
coldness ultimately what we suffer from
is a denial of our common humanity
cinema can perfectly compensate us for
this withdrawal of emotional energy by
showing us the appeal of people far away
with otherwise be completely
uninterested in with the highest
artistry we're reminded of an obvious
but so easily forgotten fact our
membership the family of humanity
we've gone so far down the track of
teaching ourselves about the importance
of gentleness and compromise
many of us have unwittingly developed
problems around courage and self
assertion decent people have learned so
well to suppress their own appetite for
a fight their own desire for victory but
in a world where conflict is unavoidable
good people sometimes need to strengthen
their willingness to face down
opposition not always to compromise and
play it safe but to take risks to get
out and fight to relish victory and to
be a bit more ruthless in the service of
noble and deeply important ends let's
make a massive demonstration of our
moral certainty sometimes it's not
enough just to be right you also need to
win so some of us might well benefit
from seeing films that tell tales of
heroism that follow someone who has to
navigate the world killer dragon out
with some baddies
the film shouldn't ideally leave us just
me or a daring of another person
it should do that far more valuable
thing educate us by example so that we
to become just a little bit more to the
robic and brave where we need to be
cinema as we currently know it is not a
million miles away from doing wonderful
things but in order to help with the
real business of living
we need this hugely compelling and
powerful art form to set out in a more
determined and systematic way to offer
us the help we really need the way we
categorize films should ideally get a
little bit more subtle rather than say
something was merely a thriller or a
comedy we'd put the accent on what these
jaws might achieve for their audiences
instead of suggesting the one needs to
be above a particular age to watch a
film the government classification board
would see its primary task is that of
helping a film to reach the audience it
could best help
thus a film might be rated a meaning
that it was regarded as being
particularly good at getting us to
address and cope with anxiety or it
could have an MC rating meaning that it
was of benefit to those experiencing
marital conflict
films can do so much for us they better
direct our feelings of sympathy they
offer comfort for our unmanageable fears
they correct an unworkable sense of what
is normal the edges towards good conduct
they caution us and armors against our
folly advices we should as societies be
ready to see them as more than just
entertainment they are at their best
guides to life and pieces of spectacular
applied philosophy at the end we show
the great French film the red balloon
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I've shown it many times but never
before have I seen kids reaching up
trying to grab the on screen balloons
and surely team
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films about love solidarity and
loneliness have never heard such team
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ah
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you