Movies, Movies, Movies!

Aside from being a huge lover of books, I'm also a huge lover of film. Always have been. As a writer, I love learning something from well-written films. I get caught up in the stories and characterizations in a different way than, perhaps, if I weren't a writer.

Here's a perfect example:

I showed this short film to my class last week. It's amazing. I'm not normally a fan of shorts, but this is a well-crafted piece of writing, beginning to end. It's one of 18 shorts in a movie called, I Love You, Paris. (Don't let the subtitles scare you away - it's actually fun to see the words on screen - makes the experience even richer). Out of the 18 shorts, I fell completely in love with about 9 of them, fell in like with about 6 of them, and could sort of take or leave the rest of them. This collection of shorts is quirky, moving, poignant, funny, gut-wrenching, and did I mention, amazing??

I told my students to view this short film much like they would read a short story - to notice the subtleties, the symbolism, the characterization, the themes of human nature - all crammed masterfully into a very short space of time.

If you're anything like me, you end up not just watching films, but dissecting them, scrutinizing them, peeking behind the curtain to see how the screenwriter did it. As writers, that's our job. We're allowed to peek behind that curtain. In fact, we should. But, I'll save that for another blog entry...

So, what are some of your favorite movies - that speak most particularly to the "writer in you?"