What is film language? We might know how we can use film language to analyze cinema, but what precisely does film language mean, anyway?
Film language is a broad phrase that encompasses all of the techniques, resources and details used in the film making process that create a distinctive style and thematic substance or message. A film's utilization of editing, cinematography, pacing, sound, dialogue and even actors cue the viewer into a very textured language that translate a film's meaning. The idea of film language may seem straight forward and obvious for the sake of film critique or analysis, but if we are honest with our observations, we will discover some very strange ideas embedded in the language of its maker.
Film language, along with the perspective of Will Smith Vision*, illustrate that movies say a lot more than what is written in a script. To a greater extent, movies synthesize a nation's psyche by acting like a moral beacon. Conversely, cinema's failure to capture its viewer reveal a maker's cognitive bias, often in unflattering light.
But on a cinematic level, film language translates into something that is very abstract; it is almost intangible in the verbal sense yet remains coherent and powerful. People interpret films on various levels, often quite intimately. They may not be able to explain why they enjoy a movie that was bad, but good. Why does this happen?
It is worth examining key interpretations to get a sense of what the film maker intends to convey or further developing our understanding of a movie's language.
For the sake of this blog, movies and films are interchangeable words. But don't worry, I will not be referring to something shot on video as film.
*to be explained in future post
