• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Goodreads

ML Hart

ML Hart's journal of observations, obsessions and inspirations

  • Home
  • Books
    • The FAB Book
    • Inside the Music
    • The Art of Making Opera
  • Words and Images
    • Writing
    • Photography
    • Creativity
    • Opera & Theatre
  • Recommendations
    • Artists & Craft
    • Drama & Dance
    • Movies & TV
    • Music
    • Opera
    • Positivity +
    • Reading
  • About
    • Reviews
    • ML Hart résumé
    • Articles and Interviews
  • Blog
    • Books
    • Creativity
    • Film & TV
    • Miscellany
    • Photography
    • Reading
    • Writing
  • Contact

Movies & TV

Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.

INGMAR BERGMAN
photo of an old movie projector

One of my favorite moments draws from our collective primal memory: people gathered together in a darkened room, watching flickering lights and shadow tell a story on a screen. It’s akin to our ancestors seated under the night sky in front of a fire, spellbound by the shaman’s performance.

Beginnings and first impressions

Storytelling is in our DNA and in the last hundred years, film has become a powerful way of sharing information and emotion. Today’s tales, on screens large and small, can be high art or escapist entertainment. I enjoy both, from Monty Python to Masterpiece Theatre. Star Trek (The Original Series) to Saturday Night Live. The Ed Sullivan Show to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

As a teen, I not only loved Mission: Impossible but watched history being made in what seemed like a real-life impossible mission: all the early space lift-offs, splashdowns and the moon landing on July 20, 1969. I vividly recall seeing events that defined a generation as they unfolded in real time. Riots, war, protests, inaugurations. State funerals in 1963 and 1968.

Exploring the wider view

Films shown in a theatre are different. Used to be, TV shows had smaller budgets than movies and you could put your feet up and talk through the show. Times change. The lines are now blurred. Television can give us series that, like the radio serials back before I was born, invite people to pay attention at a pre-set time each week.

When it all works, the cinema still wields its particular kind of magic. My family used to watch The Wizard of Oz, shown every year on television when I was a child. I loved it (except for the flying monkeys, which frightened me). It wasn’t until years after, late teens, that I saw it in a theatre and I fell out of my seat when Kansas changes to Oz from black-and-white to color. Magic! Our television sets had been monochrome all those years. I hadn’t known the film was in color.

More and more screens

Because filmmaking is such a massive collaborative effort, the stories behind the story hold a special appeal. I marvel at how a complicated shot was made when a second-unit director and stunt coordinator provide details. I learn about the craft of screenwriting from writers talking about deadlines, rewrites and influences from actors. And of course, I enjoy getting a glimpse into the design process with virtual tours of costume shops and special f/x studios. All this and more are conveniently available as featurettes on DVDs.

Give me a good story, one that’s well-told, and I’m hooked.

Explore More

I’ll be posting opinions, memories and recommendations of films and television series, some current and trending, others examining the popular history of stories told on screens.
Consider this an open invitation to join the dialogue, ask and answer questions, and share your favorites.

illustration:  35mm movie projector with film reels

ML Hart logo

MUSINGS ON THE ARTIST’S LIFE

ML Hart’s journal of observations, obsessions & inspirations

Writer. Documentary photographer. Artist.
I’m inspired by both shadow and light and curious about most everything. Welcome to my journal of musings.

More about ML Hart.

Contact Me

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Goodreads

Explore Topics

Comment Policy

Play-nice guidelines for commenting on posts and articles.

Privacy and Cookies

Privacy on the internet is as important to me as it is to you. Details about how this site may track and store data such as email addresses can be found in the Privacy Notice and Cookie Policy.

Copyright

Copyright © 1995 – 2022 ML Hart
Original writings and other works, including posts, stories, reviews, excerpts from books, extracts from interviews for The Tenor Book, unless otherwise attributed; all photography and artwork, except as noted.

All rights reserved.

Confused about copyright and why it’s important to a writer and artist? Puzzled about copying content from someone else’s site? Take a look at my Copyright Reference page and Why Copyright Matters post.

Permissions

Contact me for permission to re-post, quote from, link to in whole or in part, or for use in any form.

Copyright © 2023 · ML Hart · All Rights Reserved
LOGO BY RFG3 | SITE ASSISTANCE BY CALLIAWEB.CO.UK | POWERED BY SITEGROUND