What Is Cinema?

2013

Documentary / History

5
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 435 435

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Plot summary

Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, David Lynch, and Jonas Mekas, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman shows what these filmmakers and others do that can't be expressed in words - but only in cinema.

Director

Chuck Workman Photo
Chuck Workman

Top cast

James Franco Photo
James Franco as Self
Akira Kurosawa Photo
Akira Kurosawa as Self
Alfred Hitchcock Photo
Alfred Hitchcock as Self
David Lynch Photo
David Lynch as Self
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
714.32 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 2
1.43 GB
1920*1080
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by cmomman1988 7 / 10

A Condensed Version of Mark Cousins' "Story of Film"

Pros: Glad to see experimental films that haven't been seen in a while alongside the usual international fare; saw Chuck's previous works (Precious Images & The Source); understood the "outside the mainstream" perspective Cons: I'm not as militant on cinema as some on this doc
Reviewed by AlsExGal 5 / 10

A little too artsy for me

Chuck Workman--the man who gave us THE "100 Years of Movies" TCM short, and invented the Great Moments Oscar Montage--is so smitten with Bold, Artistic Experimental Film in this one, he literally tries to snub 100 years of movies in the process.Problem is, Workman has never made a classic movie look bad in his life, and I don't think he would even know how to if he tried--And he's trying to here: In the scenes where he tries to contrast the experimental directors by showing montages of all the "brain-dead" and "commercialized" Hollywood 00's product, he makes Twilight, Titanic and Return of the King clips look like new classics, and in a montage of how "chauvinistic" and "anti-feminist" old Hollywood was compared to indie lesbian filmmakers, he shows Clark Gable sweeping Vivian Leigh up the stairs...These are BAD things?? :blink:It might help if the experimental filmmakers didn't have their art-festival heads up their hinders talking about "Rules must be broken" as they give us nonsensical and pretentious wastes of camera, and then Michael Moore shows up--If you're going to do a movie about bold, experimental film, it's not a good result if all it makes us do is want to go back and watch Gone With the Wind. (In the opening where we watch David Lynch transfixed by "North by Northwest", all we want to do is slap him and say "Now, why the heck couldn't YOU do that??")
Reviewed by gavin6942 6 / 10

Decent

Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, David Lynch, and Jonas Mekas, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman shows what these filmmakers and others do that can't be expressed in words - but only in cinema.Thank you for talking with David Lynch, who says "it can be like a dream" when watching cinema. In a way, this is sort of the point. It is trying to bring us in, get an emotional response, tell a story... make the false true and the fake real. If you can make fantasy a reality, you have succeeded.There seems to be a growing number of "documentaries" that just show film clips and talk over them. Most are garbage. This one is okay. Not great, but okay. There are enough moments of directors talking about the films that influenced them to really be helpful, and enough footage from lesser-known films to really spark someone to add to their watch-list.
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