Removed from Paradise

In reading many of my classmates blogs on Cinema Paradiso I have noticed that many people seem to be concentrating on the effect the film had for them, and the interesting non mainstream plot line the film employees. As Tyler pointed out in his blog Cinema Paradiso it is very interesting that Alfredo points out that " life is not like the movies, and that the real world doesn't function like the fictional world of film." This is interesting because Alfredo is in a movie and is pointing out to his audience that movies are not real. Yet i would argue that what makes cinema Paridiso so interesting is its use of realism in the story.

As many of my classmates pointed out Cinema Paradiso does not follow the standard Hollywood narrative structure. Alex said it very well in his blog Cinema Paradiso vs Hollywood when he pointed out that it does not contain any real "clear-cut problem" or "specific goals." It also lacks the happy ending and resolution that people have come to expect from Hollywood films. Some people might point out that this is probably because it is not from Hollywood, but I would like to think that the makers of this movie did this on purpose as it gives the movie a more realistic feel.

I argued in my last blog that realism in movies is a bad thing because people don't want to watch something they could easily see out there front door. I am think now that I was wrong to make that such an absolute. In my opinion the realism in Cinema Paradiso works for us in America for two reasons. The first is that we in America do not see the culture of the Italian people from day to day. So it is very interesting to watch them. Now obviously this movie is not entirely realistic in its portrayal of Italian culture. Having lived in Italy myself for a year I know that this movie is exaggerating the Italian culture so that Italian people can laugh at themselves. This makes it even more funny for us as Americans. Secondly, the realism in Cinema Paradiso works so well because it is constantly compared threw the plot line to many other non realistic movies. this shows that the movie is more of an oddity then a norm which makes it interesting.

I feel that the realism of Cinema Paradiso also has an influence on its effect on the audiences emotions. As many people have said it allows us to relate to the character of Toto in many ways. I found myself not necessarily relating to Toto on a personal level but still feeling some emotional responses to his hardships and life. I however like others found older Toto to be much more difficult to sympathize with and felt that that left a few lose ends to the story.

Threw a Tinted Looking Glass

It seems to me that at first glance films do not effect the way we see the world. I know that is a rather strong statement to make in a film class but what I mean is that people don't try to or even want to be effected by films in a long term manner. How many people do you meet that say I have to go see this bloody movie just so I can lower the amount seeing people die affects me. Or I'm going to go watch a raciest movie so I will think worse of people. My point is we don't go to the movies so we can be effected long term. People don't go to the movies to have their views altered they go to be stimulated emotionally and/or intellectually. This is reflected in the film industry by the fact that all major motion films are made for entertainment purposes and not knowledge purposes. Amelie is a perfect example of this. On the outside the movie is hilarious, stimulating enough of our brains to make us think while still keeping us laughing. But if someone attempted to Amelie influence their thoughts on the world by say imitating her they could end up with a very strange view of the world. I would argue that it is more often then not discouraged for people to imitate or let there views be influenced by movies. No parents would want their kids imitating the actions of a teen in a teenage movie, and no one would like to see their friend turn into a murdering psychopath. This I believe stems from the fact that the majority of movies today are made for entertainment purposes. People are bored by movies of reality because they don't want to see something they could easily see by walking out their front door. I completely agree with Benjamin in his analysis of film existing not for the use of religion or cult value but for its working value in entertainment.

Going back to my point on the effects of movies, while I do not believe people want to be influenced long term by movies they very often do want to be influenced short term. For instance someone going to a horror movie wants to be scared to experience the full effect of that movie. People all the time want to have their exterior emotions influenced by movies so that they can be entertained. And even while they may not be trying to, or want to be influenced by movies, movies definitely play a major role in establishing our culture and I believe slowly influence people who watch them. An easy way to see this is if we look at the evolution of a movies. Fifty years ago their was very little blood and gore in movies compared to now. Some people might argue that this is because it was difficult to make realistic gore and that recent advances in technology have enabled this to be done. While this is true it is hard to argue against the fact that if someone from the fifties were to see one of today's thrillers they would be disgusted and probably very scared by the intensity of the movie. This shows that while both technology and culture may be a limiting factors in what movies are made, culture and what people will except as reasonable in movies changes as people become less sensitized to the current movies. We are as individuals also influenced by movies over time. Little children are often times very scared of some things in movies. As they grow older they watch more and more intense movies developing less sensitivity to the topics in movies. While many things can influence a persons sensitivity to issues like sex and violence, movies play a part in this desensitization. A child that has grown up watching violent movies is more likely to take in stride seeing violence and gore in real life.

To sum up what I have said I believe that people like being, and try to be, influenced short term by movies. And while people may not want to be, or try to be, influenced long term by movies they are slowly over time influenced by the movies they watch. Also our culture is over time influenced by the movies we watch. What is interesting to note that because movies are made for entertainment purposes it is our culture that determines what is acceptable in movies. This forms almost a circle as our culture, plus film directors and producers willing to push the line a little, create movies that influence out culture and thereby set up for the next set of movies.