The Rise of Film

The Rise of Film

January 18, 2016

Topic of Choice

After the invention of the printing press, ideas spread all throughout Europe with a rapidity unparalleled in history. Books became accessible to the common man and the secrets of the university became a part of the average layman’s everyday dialogue. This extraordinary historical and social transformation may be compared to the rise of film in the contemporary age. Whereas books were the medium for stories during the early modern age, film has become the most prevalent medium for stories in contemporary society. The power and ascendency of film is found in it’s ability to portray image, sound, and narrative together. When it comes to books we are left to our own imaginations in hearing and seeing a character. Film is perhaps the most complete form of art, bringing together the whole of the human experience onto a screen. Movies depict the human condition in a complete way that other forms of art fail to do. Understanding how film has risen as a contemporary form of art evokes the question of how film will continue to develop as art. In every other medium of art, besides film, there is a category for the sacred. This begs the question: will there ever be a sacred category for films? I believe the answer is no. All other forms of art seem to capture a part of a whole. Film is exclusive from other forms of art in it’s ability to tie all other forms together in a complete whole, incorporating words, dance, music, architecture, ideas, etc. Film cannot be contained in the way that other expressions of art can be, since it contains elements of them all. For this reason, I believe, film has the power to reveal and communicate the sacred but that no sole film will be considered sacred.