Film-watching

It's funny, really. People talk about the experience a lot. From people who will just watch a film every couple of months because they feel like they have to, to people who really, truly care about cinema like it's going to save the world alone. Everyone watches films, and everyone talks about them or about their creators with their friends or with someone they just met - it's like the weather, a general topic everyone will have something to say about.

And yet, film-watching is such a different experience for everyone. A different person is bound to care about different things or for different reasons. Anyone, from a 14 year old girl to a 60 year old man, will probably care about the plot, about what story it tells. And some people care about the way it looks. But even these things seem so different to each person, nobody can perfectly agree on everything. Others care about an original storyline or character development or plot twists, other care for the theme to be similar to what they have lived in their lives or what they have loved in previous films. Some care about the colours (*raises hand*) or the cinematography or the camera work, and certain people like or hate the star system they're subjected to in different industries... And each of these people has different opinions for different reasons.

Some just like what they're told to like, either because of their political orientations or who they are in the world, and others have points which they focus on to generally select their likes and dislikes, such as the fact that it's recent or old, or the way it looks as a series of images, or because someone they respect is in some way or another involved in it. It's all the same really.

And it's scary, yet still wonderful, how much or how long one can talk about a film or group of films, like the weather, and feel like they connect with or like the other person due to a similarity of opinions on what they've discussed, or hate them for the different way they see and care about things. No, I'm not saying that any of these people is wrong, far from it. Just that I don't know how much it matters, or if it matters at all.