Sunday, September 5, 2010

why we watch movies

"I don't think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away."

~~ Ton Noonan

This got me thinking. Am I the escapist ? A realist ? Somewhere in between ? All of the above? Together ? By turns? I know now that in our lives we never are one thing at all times. But I am going to try and fathom anyways.

The movies I look for are about real or imagined people, places and times. Which means all the movies. :). Okay, movies which make you yearn for something, which make you think about your own life and remind you of your many hungers you learnt to live with and not do anything about. The ones which fill you with a mad lust - for poetry, for love and the excursions into the known unknowns of this world. I don't demand that it make me happy only that it should evoke and stir something in me. And yes I am partial to soaring music, beautiful words and lyrical voice overs.

But then you don't need a movie to do that for you. And life is here and you don't need to watch a movie to get into or back to it. Maybe its the same escapism after all, if only of a different kind. You are still getting your highs from watching characters in movies do what you don't, only wished you did.

I don't know if there is one reason why we watch movies. But if there was, what would be yours ?

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