INTRO : How I learned to stop worring and love popular cinema ?

WHY POPULAR CINEMA ?

Popular , mainstream ,commercial , mass produced , Hollywood , genre , studio controlled ..... all the bad words , among movie lovers. It looks like all the movie talks are restricted only in judging and labeling . Films are nothing more than just : "good" , "bad" , "amazing" , "intellectual" , "deep" , "art" , "independent" ,"author" , "new wave" , "no wave" , "5 star IMDB" , "verite" , "top ten" , "dogme" and etc. Nothing wrong with that , but the real interest of Cinema , not only as Art , but as a phenomenon with cultural importance , should be free of any stereotypes and labels . If a movie is popular and like fro the Masses , it only means that millions of people around the world had the same emotional response to a cinematic image . It is a perfect opportunity to understand human psyche and mass psychology , and the "mechanics" and the role of Cinema . Popular is not a bad word , means "well liked from a lots of people". Vox populi , Vox dei.
Mass society and Global culture are not some kind of new danger , as Global Waring.
They are our reality , we all are mass people , even "one dimensional" people , but there is no place for worries. We are common people and we are proud of it.
21st.Century will be ruled by the masses and fil isthe ultimate mass art form.
Only through the Cinema the masses can see and know itself ,in there multitude.
In a global mass society the Cinematic Image becomes the new religion that unites , leads and governs the crowds.


THE WORLD OF CINEMA AND THE CINEMA OF THE WORLD

I strongly believe that Cinema is in the key for understanding human nature.
The ancient Greek aphorism "Know thyself" , finally is revived ?(“Gnothi Seauton“gr. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and “Temet nosce”lat. Matrix film series.)
I call Cinema the “real Apocalypse” , “the ultimate Revelation” ,coming from the “holy” images oh thousand gods , created by humans. Only because , Cinema represents millions of worlds created by man ,it is the perfect tool to understand the inner world of human psyche . Cinema is short from “Cinematography”, meaning “the art of recording visual images” , so through the human eye , Cinema is recording images adding human feelings to it. Cinema is the art of recording human feeling . The cinematic image is a symbolic image , an icon with human meaning. Cinema takes the “Real Real “ world and puts reason and emotion in it ,in a best way. The cinematic world is filled with human thoughts , feelings and models of human behavior.


CINEMA SCIENCE

As a object of humanitarian scientific research Cinema offers unique look inside the human nature. Not better ,but different than any medical experiments , psychological observations , sociological polls , psychoanalytical readings of human memories and dreams , biological researches on DNA , astrological signs etc.
The difference is that the cinematic experience includes “Empathy” , and this is part of it .
Cinema Studies are true humanitarian science ,a science with emotion. “Empathy” and emotion are needed fro the researcher if he wants to understand truly the “ object” of his research , he must be subjective ,this is the beauty of it .The Cinema Studies are not afraid of the “Observer effect” (in physics, the impact of observing a physical system) , because this “impact” is expected, it is called “Art” ! The power of “Art” is in it “impact” , which is called “Empathy” with the passions and emotions of the character. The Cinematic Scholar is expected to feel when watching an speaking about movies. The conversation about movie is highly emotional one and is it not finished with shallow review – rating -judgement – “ 83%” , “Amazingly Trilling…” etc.
The passing time is the only Judge of films .They are going nowhere , even if we do not see “ the newest ones”,they are waiting for us somewhere. The only goal of a film is to find it’s audience and to be reborn, as a virus . The film will find us eventually. The audience is “the Observer” , and if the film is “good” it is really “effected” , but this is not the end. The film is now “planted” in a human organism and stays there till it’s activated . The activation occurs when the “infected observer” happens to be in a situation close to a “Cinematic Image” , witch is emotionally attached in his memory..
So now , we have “Observer effect “ ,but in psychology, where people change their behavior when aware of being watched . The viewer feels like he is being watched , “Peeping Tom” , becomes Winston Smith from “1984”.

CINEMA PHILOSOPHY

Cinema is such an important phenomenon in the human civilization that it can’t be an object only of one narrow scientific discipline . That’s why Cinema or Film Studies are called this way , they have enough space to grow in the future ,to include all the new branches – cinema epistemology , cinema and mass society , cinema hermeneutics , cinema psychology etc.
Cinema can be use as object for research from any humanitarian science , it is something so powerful that is shaping the world .Cinema represents so fully all human activities that studying cinema is actually studying human nature , which is the core of all knowledge.
The whole 20th. Century went under the sign of Cinema , so most likely is 21st. Century to use the Cinema as an “archetype tank” for a base ,to create it’s new design. So if anyone wants to be on level with the uncertainty of the upcoming times , it is all in Cinema. If all this is partly true , then why Cinema is not studied in the schools of general education ? Even in Plato’s ideal Republic , Art’s must be studied from children in order to understand their dangerous effect on people ,”to move them powerfully and stir their emotions Poetry connects with human passions and emotions , which is the lowest part of human soul , according to Plato. Art “feeds and waters our passions.” If we want to control these passions we must study the theory of Art.
The ideal citizens of the Republic must learn how to conquer their lowest passion and emotions . In our postmodern society we often use the term “intelligence ” , actually in psychology there are three types of intelligence -Fluid , Crystallized and Emotional. Emotional intelligence or El , is ability to identify, assess and manage the emotions of self and others. It looks to e that this type of intelligence is the most precious one for a person who is looking for happiness and peace in life. But there is a catch , of course. The path towards the Peace is going trough the facing of the Truth of Reality. The hardest and most dangerous thing for a human to do.

WHAT IS “REAL REAL”

It is Slavoj Zizek’s term , it means to face the Terror of the Ultimate Reality. The material reality , without it’s symbolic order , without reason and meaning. The Earth is not “Mother Earth” ,it is just “ the third rock from the sun” , the nature is not in “harmony”, but in chaos.
This is the world outside the “Matrix” -“Welcome to the dessert of reality”.
To gaze into Nietzsche’s Abyss , to accept the Real Real ,one needs the whole wisdom of the world , but most of all knowledge of thyself . The knowledge of being and nothingness. I know that I know nothing. That nothing ,that emptiness is the scary thing to accept. The notion that the concept of Self is an illusion , and there isn’t a “grand plan” and “causa sui” in your existence , leaves you only the “Unbearable lightness of being”. As they say ,”As good as it gets” ,or “Whatever works” and like “Anything else” , Cinema has all the answers.
But still , these answers are not so easy do understand ,it takes a long way ,watching a lot of movies ,to accept “The Awful Truth” or “The Ugly Truth” of existence. Cinema keeps this Dangerous knowledge , the Great Secret which is the main principle of the Cosmos. Space is emptiness , vacuum ,nothingness . Existence ,not only precede essence , but existence is a temporary problem in the infinite emptiness. Matter ,doesn’t matter , it is just energy which will destroy everything one day and just change it’s form .We are just energy in a different shapes , energy can only be transformed ,but cannot be created ,or destroyed. As an energy we will live forever even after a Big Bang. ,we just need to “.....learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb “.

MOVIE TALKS

This is a project which looks of a new way to speak and think about the Cinema. For a movie lover, doesn’t seem how the films are treated these days. “Trilling .....83% rating....Entertaining....box office....”.
Movies are much more than that ,even the so called "stupid" and "shallow" ones.
Films are cultural artifacts and they hold the key for understanding the human nature , not only that ,but to live in peace with this “awful truth”.
Studying the impact of Cinema on society ,can increase the level of the Emotional Intelligence and understanding the principles of a global society. Studying Cinema gives the ultimate knowledge , to know thyself.
So it looks like a good cause to start writing some words for the World of Cinema and the Cinema of the World.