Do movies shape the way we imagine things or vice versa?
I would say they definitely influence how we imagine things, seeing as how older folks tend to have dreams in black and white, like the television they grew up with (not the best source I know, but it’s only nine in the morning here….).
Your question is “Do movies shape the way we imagine things or vice versa? ” and you use the word “imagine.” But besides reflecting the way we imagine things, I think movies reflect the process in which we actually experience events – more than the way we imagine them. For instance, a movie might cut from an omniprescient point of view (kind of broad and god-like) to one persons point of view to another person’s point of view all within a minute. I think this reflects how we often experience events – we can see it from a broader, more analytical god-like view, we can see it from our own personal point of view, and often we can also simultaneously “get” or feel someone else’s point of view – all at the same time. In this respect, I think it is our own process of experiencing life that shapes the way movies are made.
My father is a film historian. I emailed him this question. Here’s his reply: I’ve never come across any literature about the earliest audience reaction to cuts in movies. However, the basic grammar of movies that we now take for granted had to be learned by early audiences. We do know that the 1895 audience who saw the Lumiere film of a train arriving at a station ducked their heads because they thought the train was going to roll off the screen and crush them. The did not conceive the difference between two and three dimensional cinema. The following references might throw some light on the subject you raise. 1. At the beginning of the 20th century Georges Melies, father of the ‘trick film,’ was shooting a parade when his camera jammed. By the time he managed to get the camera started up again the parade had passed on and a funeral procession had taken its place. Later that day when Melies developed and projected his movie he was astounded to see that a coach in the procession had tu
