Film, Movie?

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Ron Churgin suggests:
"I always thought the difference was a movie is a fun, entertainment and a
film is a serious high-minded sort of affair.  I like both.
 
What's really interesting is the underlying distinction made by the two
names:
 
"Movie" refers to the illusion created in the viewer.
 
"Film" refers to the physical strip of celluloid that creates the illusion.
 
Many moviegoers have never seen a piece of film and there is no movement in
the cinema, just a series of still images interspersed with a dark screen."


Critics from Gerald Mast to Richard Simon have made similar distinctions
(throwing in "cinema" for good measure).  If, though, we think of "movies"
as mainly Hollywood entertainment fare and "film" as indpendent/foreign/
"arty" stuff, it's still interesting to note that Pynchon plays around
with all aspects of it.  Thus, he can allude to Lang and Cocteau as well
as Busby Berekely and KING KONG, while also speculating about the physical
aspects of the cinematic apparatus, including that  series of still images.


Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)