Cinema is my life savior, my passion that ultimately kills me a little bit because I've become so dangerously fascinated by it. Its the artform that combines all arts, the visual, the auditive and the literal. It is not solely entertainment and a throw away experience, its something that sticks with you and even expands your horizon. We need cinema just like cinema needs us to survive this illogical and cruel world.
starkingbiker Your first sentence made me think of Bukowski. "My dear, Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain from you your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you, and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it's much better to be killed by a lover." Anyways, you nailed it pretty much.
I can certainly see where you are coming from, but i think cinema is lacking one thing other artforms have which is interaction. You can't go around it exploring it from different angles like you could do with a statue, or explore the world like you can in a video game. I personally think video games is the art that at least to this day is the only one that combines all other arts (or at least have the capability to). It is just not widly recognised as such because it is a very young artform and most adults are not familiar with it (well maybe they played candy crush but you get the point). I think you can say that cinema (btw I assume you mean film since a cinema is a place) is not solely entertainment, but thats pretty much true for every other medium in existence. I think every artform has the capability to expand your horizon whether it does just depends on the individual artpeace.
In my hometown of Bern in Switzerland, there is a shop in the lower oldtown, who goes by the name "Doctor Strangelove's Video Pharmacy". The guy who owns the shop named himself after the character in the movie of Stanley Kubrick "Dr. Strangelove, or how i learned to stop worriying and love the bomb". He rents out movies and will give you advices on which movies you should watch considering your problem. This guy has done exactly what you were describing in your video for 7.5 years =)
I think this all comes down to our need to hear stories. It's the same feelings and needs that drove stone age people to gather around the campfire or made the greeks build theaters to witness the epic stories of their heroes.
6 years late on responding to this comment. But id like to add i think film is important for our mental wellbeing, it allows us to explore another world, let our brain relax and unwind. Let us 'experience' things we will never experience in reality. It also challenges our brain and sends us a message. Even makes us ponder and have more creative ideas which could actually help us even advance in society in terms of technology. We like to say that films arent important but they actually have an affect on us and society. Imagine a world with no TV shows or movies. well actually that could be a good things because people would go out more if you think about it. And also in a sense people wouldnt be so judgmental in terms of appearance. theres 2 sides to the story.
That's why I go to the cinema once a week. I've always seen the cinema more as an educational than a cultural thing and I can honestly say that it has helped me a lot through life. This video brought tears to my eyes. Well done, The School of Life.
Film is my fucking life. It's where i escape from my tragic life, i forget it, i am elsewhere in some parallel world of dreams. Film and music saves me.
these videos make me realise how beautiful our lives are. It also encurages me to appreciate little things in life and shows how simple and so meaningful they are
Here's a list of as many of the films I could recognize, with some guesses. 0:08 - Lawrence Of Arabia 0:50 - Cinema Paradiso? 1:03 - 2001: A Space Odyssey 1:46 - Amelie 1:52 - Jules Et Jim (through Amelie) 1:55, 2:18 - Withnail & I 2:01 - Do The Right Thing 3:13 - Morvern Callar 3:25 - Virgin Suicides 4:21 - Barry Lyndon 5:16 - Samsara 5:33 - (I think these various shots might be from the documentary series Story Of Film) 6:13 - Fellowship Of The Ring 6:53 - Brave 7:19 - The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp? (left) 8:14 - Passion Of Joan Of Arc 8:28 - A Clockwork Orange 8:35 - Ed Wood 8:46 - the end segment is from the Story Of Film series* I would love to know what 6:18 is anyone has any idea! *EDIT: in fact it's "The Story Of Children And Film" by the same team.
"What is art? Like a declaration of love: the consciousness of our dependence on each other. A confession. An unconscious act that reflects the true meaning of life - love and sacrifice." - Andrei Tarkovsky
In my opinion film is the most important art medium. It combines the visual, the literal, and the auditive to express a certain emotion that the filmmaker felt. It can transports us to worlds like or unlike ours with characters that are flawed like us, that we can sympathize with, that reflect us. Film communicates through dialogue, performances, color, lighting, music, framing, composition, editing.
im currently writing my thesis about cinema and geography, and i wanted to thank you guys for cheering me up with this video... i was wondering that cinema wasn't that all significant in people lives but you just showed me that in fact it is a very important matter in life... and its worth writing about it.
I think the true purpose of film is far more esoteric. The characters are all parts of us. The situations aren't meant to be compared so exactly to ourselves. We are all of them. We are the cause of the conflict and contain inside us, also, the solution.
What the video talks about can relate to any other media from novels to video games. So the details are more broad than what the title would like you to believe.
Cinema helps us to IMAGINE, Cinema gives people HOPE(which is good in most cases), Cinema helps people to DREAM, Cinema helps people to SEE THEMSELVES, Cinema helps people SEE THE BOTH SIDES of anything, Cinema helps people to LAUGH, Cinema helps people to CRY, Cinema helps people to KNOW... That's what I think anyway
I always love hearing from others about film. There's always something to learn from one's experience, and this video does not disappoint in doing that. I think for an essay, it's a bit noisy. I'd like to hear more of the speaker's voice.
I truly love this video. It demonstrates how one can take seemingly leisurely activities and make them into educational pursuits. Once I find a movie that really speaks to me I tend to watch it over and over... I never really understood, but now I can see that it's a type of therapy! I do have a question for The School of Life though. Why is race never discussed? For so many of us, race plays such a TITANIC role in our lives, from our relationships to how we perceive ourselves. So many people feel lost on these socially constructed labels, and it would be fabulous if the school of life could possibly make a video trying to take a stab at it. Gender and class are also two huge categories that people would benefit from hearing such a sobering perspective.
Donny there is no biological reason of why girls prefer pink, rtc. in fact, at some point pink was perceived as a masculine color while blue was a feminine one. and research shows that babies have the same reaction if we give them pink clothes, dolls, robots, blue shirt, etc. after we are socialized by their parents, we have different reaction toeard some things and have preference. in fact, a video by vox shows how the concept of race was created to justify slavery.
Donny because our society views color and toys as some kind of gender binary system. Fair point, but how do you explain a girl who likes robot, tomboy, and likes blue, but still identify as a girl? If preference is biological, surely tomboys girls do not identify as girls anymore?
I've been an unconditional fan of the Alain de Botton for a bit over a year now. But recently, this perspective of seeing everything in life as a therapeutic tool is kind of freaking me out. Learning is awesome, but i'm starting to go through life thinking either "how does this thing or person educate me?" or "who am I educating doing this and how?". That's in my head all the time about anything. At first it seemed like an ok idea, but I'm starting to feel like it isn't... You see, I think happiness is - or ought to be - *a side effect* to life. That's why people so desperately need 'life to have meaning', 'to be part of something bigger', 'a purpose'... I believe if you focus so much on not being anxious, that's when anxiety really hits. If you wanna throw a baseball really fast or have an awesome looking garden, the best parts of life will hit you when you least expect it... and that's when they are their tastiest I'm all for trying to revolutionize stuff so that they can help people persue one type or another of relief or emotional growth, but to try to find the *usefulness* of every little bit of life makes the whole package feel *useless*. You can look at a movie - or anything - and grasp how it transforms you. What I have a problem with is the constant lurking to find room for improvement. You should watch a movie "just because", and later, analyse the shit out of it. However, the first consumption or exposure can't be pragmatic. If everything has a function you expect them to acomplish, you're either going to be disappointed (when it doesn't get quite there) or bored (when it does). "A life unexamined is not worth living"... but you gotta live before you examine, or else you go crazy. Life isn't an illness. So why should every part of it heal a symptom?
You people are amazing. I've had a bit of a crisis with the whole ideology behind it over the past few days, but surely the good you do exceeds by far the problems that you might have here and there. I'm a philosophy graduate student and my plan A is to work on something somewhat related with bringing philosophy and pop culture closer together, and I've seen no one talk about that as well and deep as you do. From this you can see that my likes really overweigh the dislikes. I freaking love you guys. Keep up the great work.
I don't think this pertains strictly to movies. If we observer any event around us, we can analyze the situation and draw general conclusions about humanity from them. Cinema is just particularly good at this because it exposes us to such a wide range of experiences very briefly.
(comment for English work) I think cinema is simply about telling a story, its when someone thinks of a great idea or concept and puts it into the world and our society for us to see. And once that happens, it inspires someone else or gives them an idea to expand on the concept or think about it from a new perspective. Once this happens they put this out into the world as well and the cycle continues. Cinema is a way of uniting people and helping them see things they couldn’t see before.
Thanks for reminding me why I used to love watching movies. All those hours spent on the classics such as Dr. Strange Love, Life of Brian and whatever I watched. It was the sheer joy of trying to understand the emotions and the aesthetic aspect of the films that made me love them so much. I should start watching again.
I feel like nowadays cinema is used for many things now but mainly informative and entertainment. What I took from this was how cinema can affect how you see things and/or react to things and, how it teaches us to love the things you already have. I completely agree.
I came to UA-cam as a distraction from the Ethics, Existentialism and Screen Production (Film) assessments I have been working on for the entire day and come to find a new School of Life video on cinema haha. Great video though! It seems perfectly tailored to my field of study, i'll be sure to share it with some friends.
Modern Cinema isn't anything like your describing. All our movies today are about robots punching each other, explosions, and boobies. I think the medium is wasted on the greed of Hollywood today. What do you think School of Life? (Great video by the way!)
not all movies are like that, the difference between modern day cinema and the golden age of cinema is that now we are making a ton more of movies, out of which you can easily find what you are looking for, take for example the movies from the Cannes Festival, the low budget movies from any country but with powerful messages or even hollywood why not, you just have to know where to look
you're very damn wrong. Those are blockbusters. Watch Dennis Villeneuve's movies, watch Captain fantastic, Shame, yms on youtube has really cool lists with amazing movies that you've probably never heard about. I suggest you check out festival movies and channels like Every frame a painting or Jack's reviews to discover other movies. The audience is responsible for the big blockbusters like Transformers and Independance day resurgence. The audience has to change in order for the "big" movies to change.
Some, "all our movies today" sounds a bit hyperbolic, also greed is probably but a part of the reason. Same as the games industry, it makes logical sense as a business to guarantee profit by doing the same things over and over despite some of us having a problem with the seeming lack of genuineness.
oh u do know every frame a painting But I do insist you check out YMS and Jack's movie reviews. There are 500x more deep artsy films than blockbusters in the world.
Movies or Films are the nourishment my mind needs to survive. They provide room for me to immerse in wonderful worlds I dream I could visit. They provide adventures I'm too afraid to undertake. Films induce me with curiosity by exploring humanity through many diverse characters and situations. Movies shock me with the truth of things I thought impossible and surprise me with the lies of things I thought impossible. Films intrigue me, they entertain me, they make me cry and laugh, often at the same time. But what movies do the most, is to give me freedom, because in movies ANYTHING is possible.
I think this is a big step towards a world that is in touch with themselves and with each other rather than avoiding issues, if psychology has taught us anything it's that suppressing thought, problems, ect, is bad and just hurts us in the long run, the hard questions that people don't want to face right now end up facing them later on their death beds and going through big philosophical questions creates a great amount of benefit and better lives for the veiwers, thank you and I hope that The School Of Life finds a lot of success
Another great aspect of cinema is it's ability to activate the imagination by taking us outside our own lived reality and expand it by relating other perspectives and realities.
great work guys! wish I could just broadcast these for everyone to watch. i'd love to come across more pop culture videos for they're very relatable and eye opening. lots of love.
I am surprised and glad to see that shot from Baraka/Samsara. Also, I think it would be SO INTERESTING if Alain discussed some of his personal favorites. I only recall him to have mentioned Linklater and the 'before trilogy' once in his speech and I was so excited!!!
thank you for making this. I love cinema for all of these reasons you listed. you also provided new reasons and special insights about what cinema can do for people. this is a very basic, simple comment, but I asked you guys for this video and you delivered. thank you! :)
Best channel ever. Helps me to understand so many untouched matters like modern society or deep philosophical issues. p.s. the information is not off-topic at all and only contains the necessary facts, presented clearly and in a few words. Great work!
Much as I enjoy this video, being a huge film fan myself, I hope that TSoL might begin documenting specific filmmakers just as you have been for philosophers, sociologists, literary authors, artists, etc. There are many, past and present, whose work express constant themes, how we live and attitudes toward living which would be fascinating to explore. Such as Jean Renoir, Yasujiro Ozu, Eric Rohmer, Terrence Malick and many many others. I would love to see such videos exploring filmmakers from the humanities perspective. :)
What I find interesting about films is the ones that tell the "story" of an actual event that took place in society. It is like there is this need to have a definitive "narrative" of what happened. For instance the recent film about Sully Sullivan. It is strange because there is this need in our society to re-tell the story via a specific perspective. It is like a reporter "telling you" what you just saw. It is like once it is recorded in film then it did actually happen. Also it presents social schema's of how one "should" feel in a given situation. Much study needs to take place regarding socialization via film.
Since a very young age, I´ve had a deep passion and love for the art of filmmaking. I believe cinema is the most influential art medium in society, as well as the most transcendental. Films transport us to worlds like or unlike ours, where we are presented to characters with flaws like us, we sympathize with the character; these characters reflect ourselves. Film is the only way an artist can express emotion through color, lighting, composition, framing, sound, music, performances, editing and dialogue. Film combines the visual, the auditory, the literal to craft a piece of art that can touch the heart of someone, somewhere for the better. We rely on film.
I forgot what movie it was but they had a really good interpretation of what cinema meant to them. They said dreams lasts for about an hour or so (or i guess the process of dreams in sleep). And it's like you're in a complete trance when you're dreaming. It's the same in movies that have almost the same time length so when you're watching a movie, it's also like you're dreaming and escaping the real world.
This video pretty much explains why I enjoy anime so much. Anime is niche that only few millions of people enjoy but I feel like it invokes more emotion out of me than other entertainment mediums could ever do. Don't get me wrong I love movies and video games as well but for different reasons. I feel each medium has the potential to invoke emotions in their unique way and all the medium have not hit their fullest potential, with the expection being movies.
Oh God no!!! It also has an immense affect on your social conditioning which is one of the reasons you have your anxieties or inferiority complex in the first place. Most films depict a world far from reality and thus flaw your expectations of life. Lastly watching movies is an utterly passive activity and therefore decreases your motivation ( which will definitly not help you solve your problems!). I do believe in some of the positive effects mentioned in this video ( espacially for a small amount of movies ) but they get outweighed by their negative counterparts!
Depicting a world far from reality IS the point to most films. That it creates "false" expectations is not the movies fault now is it? Having expectations already is a dangerous thing, having false ones is more so, but they usually have deeper roots than external inputs. There is hardly a movie that you cant take something out if it, however small, even though I grant that its becoming harder with all the flood in superheroes movies that are just bland noise, but even those should at least provide a comfortable 2h of relaxation from daily chores.
These videos are wonderful, although I'd prefer a more theoretical approach, similar to your 'Philosophy' videos. However , you guys are so well-read that I truly value your take on every single subject.
Nothing is stopping psychologists from categorizing movies this way. It's only a matter of collaborating and getting started. It's a beautiful endeavor and I'd be very happy to see the result. The involvement of psychologists in movie ratings and categorizations would be a great change, given how unscientific, inconsistent, prudish but not anti-violence, and otherwise problematic the current rating system is.
Just thought I really need to leave this comment: I'm in love with school of life!! (please always remain this good) . *clicks on replay button* Thanks!!
Putting the songs used in the video in the description would be much appreciated. There's a really good selection of music in this video especially. Unless am I missing it in the description?
I think most of this isn't just cinema, it's the stories they tell. For example, the same happens with literature. It's just that cinema is the most popular form of art atm.
I would like to implement some of Tolstoy's principles/ideas of what 'art is for' into a film. The idea of showing the inner world of every character (protagonists, antagonists) is really appealing, but I'm not sure it's been done much.
I think movies, books, music, TV shows, games or any art is the only thing that develops our ability to think and to become better people, more open minded, more accepting of people and things. Art passes on ideas from various generations and the good ideas hold true even after centuries. Reading those ideas in forms of books, watching them in forms of movies opens up our mind to the vast possibilities, makes us think, contemplate and thus, become better people with more understanding abilities. Art is, I would say, what grows us spiritually.
Yes, most of us have the capacity. In fact, everyone does. But not everyone thinks so much, not everyone can think everything that various philosophers have given us in form of books. And after consuming art, you are free to judge it and draw your own conclusions. And media/art can be used for indoctrination, definitely. But it doesn't seem like it is. If yes, do explain how they make people more narrow minded. This video we just watched is art. Did it do more harm than good ?
dgreyz When I see SOL videos, they do not blind me into their way of thinking. It just sometimes matches with my already existing thoughts or are different in which case I just get a new perspective. There is no force or pressure. And I don't think movies are a source of indoctrination, it is not imposed upon us. And how does having free will cause problems ? I didn't get your point. My parents are very orthodox, I live in an orthodox country. They were even more orthodox when I was younger, but improved over time. If a girl wears revealing clothes, they won't be offended by it anymore. That's because of the Hollywood movies they saw. Subconsciously, they accepted the fact over time that it's normal to wear whatever you like and that everybody does it. This is just one example, I've seen many changes in them over time. So even the shittiest of movie subconsciously helps make you more accepting. It obviously depends on the context. Indoctrination is religion. Where if you don't believe in god, you can be cast aside and will obviously go to "hell". They give you something to fear, fear of life and exile (not literal) if you don't believe in their system. On the other hand, movies give you a context which after watching might or might not have been impactful, but nothing is imposed upon you. You are free to think as you wish.
Cinema is my life savior, my passion that ultimately kills me a little bit because I've become so dangerously fascinated by it. Its the artform that combines all arts, the visual, the auditive and the literal. It is not solely entertainment and a throw away experience, its something that sticks with you and even expands your horizon. We need cinema just like cinema needs us to survive this illogical and cruel world.
starkingbiker it is the ultimate art-mashup, a film can have the strength of many arts combined
starkingbiker Your first sentence made me think of Bukowski.
"My dear,
Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain from you your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you, and let it devour your remains.
For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it's much better to be killed by a lover."
Anyways, you nailed it pretty much.
I can certainly see where you are coming from, but i think cinema is lacking one thing other artforms have which is interaction. You can't go around it exploring it from different angles like you could do with a statue, or explore the world like you can in a video game. I personally think video games is the art that at least to this day is the only one that combines all other arts (or at least have the capability to). It is just not widly recognised as such because it is a very young artform and most adults are not familiar with it (well maybe they played candy crush but you get the point).
I think you can say that cinema (btw I assume you mean film since a cinema is a place) is not solely entertainment, but thats pretty much true for every other medium in existence. I think every artform has the capability to expand your horizon whether it does just depends on the individual artpeace.
Um, film does allow for exploration, that's what analysis is for.
That's an awesome quote
In my hometown of Bern in Switzerland, there is a shop in the lower oldtown, who goes by the name "Doctor Strangelove's Video Pharmacy". The guy who owns the shop named himself after the character in the movie of Stanley Kubrick "Dr. Strangelove, or how i learned to stop worriying and love the bomb". He rents out movies and will give you advices on which movies you should watch considering your problem. This guy has done exactly what you were describing in your video for 7.5 years =)
BurgerKingRuefe nice
That man deserves 10 females
@Worxafiction
I think he had his fair share of girls ^^
Ooo my bro. Magical country Switzerland. I had been there a years ago, at February in Zurich. My lovely country.
I think this all comes down to our need to hear stories.
It's the same feelings and needs that drove stone age people to gather around the campfire or made the greeks build theaters to witness the epic stories of their heroes.
6 years late on responding to this comment. But id like to add i think film is important for our mental wellbeing, it allows us to explore another world, let our brain relax and unwind. Let us 'experience' things we will never experience in reality. It also challenges our brain and sends us a message. Even makes us ponder and have more creative ideas which could actually help us even advance in society in terms of technology. We like to say that films arent important but they actually have an affect on us and society. Imagine a world with no TV shows or movies. well actually that could be a good things because people would go out more if you think about it. And also in a sense people wouldnt be so judgmental in terms of appearance. theres 2 sides to the story.
@@Dragondude30 Well 6 years later I'm still here! haha. Although I don't remember much about the video. I mostly agree with you.
the school of life really has changed my life, I LOVE IT, NEVER STOP MAKING VIDEOS
As an aspiring filmmaker, this makes me very happy.
***** Ye, I'll give you an acknowledgement in my speech at the Oscars.
Channel Tom all the best
Channel Tom please do cool movies and use diversity
@@Shoebill mention the link please
That's why I go to the cinema once a week. I've always seen the cinema more as an educational than a cultural thing and I can honestly say that it has helped me a lot through life. This video brought tears to my eyes. Well done, The School of Life.
Film is my fucking life.
It's where i escape from my tragic life, i forget it, i am elsewhere in some parallel world of dreams.
Film and music saves me.
If you use film for Escapism, then you missed the point entirely. Film is not about escaping life, it is a study, celebration, and lamentation of life
these videos make me realise how beautiful our lives are. It also encurages me to appreciate little things in life and shows how simple and so meaningful they are
You should make a video about the golden age of television. I'd love to see you talk about Mad Men, The Leftovers, The Sopranos etc.
Tyler Pelzer Twin Peaks
Here's a list of as many of the films I could recognize, with some guesses.
0:08 - Lawrence Of Arabia
0:50 - Cinema Paradiso?
1:03 - 2001: A Space Odyssey
1:46 - Amelie
1:52 - Jules Et Jim (through Amelie)
1:55, 2:18 - Withnail & I
2:01 - Do The Right Thing
3:13 - Morvern Callar
3:25 - Virgin Suicides
4:21 - Barry Lyndon
5:16 - Samsara
5:33 - (I think these various shots might be from the documentary series Story Of Film)
6:13 - Fellowship Of The Ring
6:53 - Brave
7:19 - The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp? (left)
8:14 - Passion Of Joan Of Arc
8:28 - A Clockwork Orange
8:35 - Ed Wood
8:46 - the end segment is from the Story Of Film series*
I would love to know what 6:18 is anyone has any idea! *EDIT: in fact it's "The Story Of Children And Film" by the same team.
Movie at 6:18 is Meek's Cutoff
The shots of the Arab girl (walking outside; with her mother) are from a Saudi Arabian film called Wadjda. I recommend it very highly.
It's not Melancholia, it's Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides
GameBoyPL1991 Whoops right you are, corrected.
also , bend it like beckham
"What is art? Like a declaration of love: the consciousness of our dependence on each other. A confession. An unconscious act that reflects the true meaning of life - love and sacrifice."
- Andrei Tarkovsky
Wow, a Tarkovsky quote!
In my opinion film is the most important art medium. It combines the visual, the literal, and the auditive to express a certain emotion that the filmmaker felt. It can transports us to worlds like or unlike ours with characters that are flawed like us, that we can sympathize with, that reflect us. Film communicates through dialogue, performances, color, lighting, music, framing, composition, editing.
That rating system Idea is FANTASTIC. I wish it WAS based on what we're emotionally looking for.
im currently writing my thesis about cinema and geography, and i wanted to thank you guys for cheering me up with this video...
i was wondering that cinema wasn't that all significant in people lives but you just showed me that in fact it is a very important matter in life... and its worth writing about it.
It is!!!
Leandro Almeida hell yea it is
How was your thesis?
Watching this reminded me how much I miss Roger Ebert. He really inspired me to love cinema.
I think the true purpose of film is far more esoteric. The characters are all parts of us. The situations aren't meant to be compared so exactly to ourselves. We are all of them. We are the cause of the conflict and contain inside us, also, the solution.
I love this comment
What the video talks about can relate to any other media from novels to video games. So the details are more broad than what the title would like you to believe.
Good god, I love all your videos. You have help me so much
Took the words right out of my mouth
I also want to say "thank you" for all the videos. Your videos have given me many insights for facing my everyday problems.
Maybe you could do a video on photography and its intrinsic qualities that help to guide culture, media, and discourse in contemporary society?
Cinema helps us to IMAGINE, Cinema gives people HOPE(which is good in most cases), Cinema helps people to DREAM, Cinema helps people to SEE THEMSELVES, Cinema helps people SEE THE BOTH SIDES of anything, Cinema helps people to LAUGH, Cinema helps people to CRY, Cinema helps people to KNOW...
That's what I think anyway
jet black
This is why movies are the most important thing in my life.
God, I love this channel.
I always love hearing from others about film. There's always something to learn from one's experience, and this video does not disappoint in doing that. I think for an essay, it's a bit noisy. I'd like to hear more of the speaker's voice.
I truly love this video. It demonstrates how one can take seemingly leisurely activities and make them into educational pursuits. Once I find a movie that really speaks to me I tend to watch it over and over... I never really understood, but now I can see that it's a type of therapy!
I do have a question for The School of Life though. Why is race never discussed? For so many of us, race plays such a TITANIC role in our lives, from our relationships to how we perceive ourselves. So many people feel lost on these socially constructed labels, and it would be fabulous if the school of life could possibly make a video trying to take a stab at it. Gender and class are also two huge categories that people would benefit from hearing such a sobering perspective.
Donny there is no biological reason of why girls prefer pink, rtc. in fact, at some point pink was perceived as a masculine color while blue was a feminine one.
and research shows that babies have the same reaction if we give them pink clothes, dolls, robots, blue shirt, etc. after we are socialized by their parents, we have different reaction toeard some things and have preference.
in fact, a video by vox shows how the concept of race was created to justify slavery.
Donny because our society views color and toys as some kind of gender binary system.
Fair point, but how do you explain a girl who likes robot, tomboy, and likes blue, but still identify as a girl? If preference is biological, surely tomboys girls do not identify as girls anymore?
I am a white guy, and I truly believe that race, gender, ethnicity, class, and the like are merely forgetting that, deep down, we are all HUMAN.
Donny Dude what the hell? Biology explains biological reactions nothing more
Doesn't explain preferences, skills or choices
I've been an unconditional fan of the Alain de Botton for a bit over a year now. But recently, this perspective of seeing everything in life as a therapeutic tool is kind of freaking me out. Learning is awesome, but i'm starting to go through life thinking either "how does this thing or person educate me?" or "who am I educating doing this and how?". That's in my head all the time about anything. At first it seemed like an ok idea, but I'm starting to feel like it isn't...
You see, I think happiness is - or ought to be - *a side effect* to life. That's why people so desperately need 'life to have meaning', 'to be part of something bigger', 'a purpose'... I believe if you focus so much on not being anxious, that's when anxiety really hits. If you wanna throw a baseball really fast or have an awesome looking garden, the best parts of life will hit you when you least expect it... and that's when they are their tastiest
I'm all for trying to revolutionize stuff so that they can help people persue one type or another of relief or emotional growth, but to try to find the *usefulness* of every little bit of life makes the whole package feel *useless*.
You can look at a movie - or anything - and grasp how it transforms you. What I have a problem with is the constant lurking to find room for improvement. You should watch a movie "just because", and later, analyse the shit out of it. However, the first consumption or exposure can't be pragmatic. If everything has a function you expect them to acomplish, you're either going to be disappointed (when it doesn't get quite there) or bored (when it does).
"A life unexamined is not worth living"... but you gotta live before you examine, or else you go crazy.
Life isn't an illness. So why should every part of it heal a symptom?
I'd come in my panties if the channel people responded to this
You people are amazing. I've had a bit of a crisis with the whole ideology behind it over the past few days, but surely the good you do exceeds by far the problems that you might have here and there.
I'm a philosophy graduate student and my plan A is to work on something somewhat related with bringing philosophy and pop culture closer together, and I've seen no one talk about that as well and deep as you do.
From this you can see that my likes really overweigh the dislikes. I freaking love you guys. Keep up the great work.
I don't think this pertains strictly to movies. If we observer any event around us, we can analyze the situation and draw general conclusions about humanity from them. Cinema is just particularly good at this because it exposes us to such a wide range of experiences very briefly.
Good cinema (mostly European and Asian) is what makes me hopeful in humanity.
There's great American cinema too, you just have to look for it!
bejonsson very small number of films, i agree.
Mani M Yes, compared to the glut of Hollywood cinema produced every year :)
Favorite European films?
Saul Cifuentes Jazz Cache by Haneke
(comment for English work)
I think cinema is simply about telling a story, its when someone thinks of a great idea or concept and puts it into the world and our society for us to see. And once that happens, it inspires someone else or gives them an idea to expand on the concept or think about it from a new perspective. Once this happens they put this out into the world as well and the cycle continues. Cinema is a way of uniting people and helping them see things they couldn’t see before.
Thanks for reminding me why I used to love watching movies. All those hours spent on the classics such as Dr. Strange Love, Life of Brian and whatever I watched. It was the sheer joy of trying to understand the emotions and the aesthetic aspect of the films that made me love them so much. I should start watching again.
Oh my... "at the end" bit made me tear up a little. Movies are surely therapeutic.
I feel like nowadays cinema is used for many things now but mainly informative and entertainment. What I took from this was how cinema can affect how you see things and/or react to things and, how it teaches us to love the things you already have. I completely agree.
Wonderful video essay. I also appreciated the subtle jabs you threw at Sex and the City.
"A denial of our common humanity". That one actually made me cry :(
I came to UA-cam as a distraction from the Ethics, Existentialism and Screen Production (Film) assessments I have been working on for the entire day and come to find a new School of Life video on cinema haha.
Great video though! It seems perfectly tailored to my field of study, i'll be sure to share it with some friends.
Modern Cinema isn't anything like your describing. All our movies today are about robots punching each other, explosions, and boobies. I think the medium is wasted on the greed of Hollywood today. What do you think School of Life? (Great video by the way!)
daniel henderson
Maybe he's describing non-hollywood media?
not all movies are like that, the difference between modern day cinema and the golden age of cinema is that now we are making a ton more of movies, out of which you can easily find what you are looking for, take for example the movies from the Cannes Festival, the low budget movies from any country but with powerful messages or even hollywood why not, you just have to know where to look
you're very damn wrong. Those are blockbusters. Watch Dennis Villeneuve's movies, watch Captain fantastic, Shame, yms on youtube has really cool lists with amazing movies that you've probably never heard about. I suggest you check out festival movies and channels like Every frame a painting or Jack's reviews to discover other movies. The audience is responsible for the big blockbusters like Transformers and Independance day resurgence. The audience has to change in order for the "big" movies to change.
Some, "all our movies today" sounds a bit hyperbolic, also greed is probably but a part of the reason. Same as the games industry, it makes logical sense as a business to guarantee profit by doing the same things over and over despite some of us having a problem with the seeming lack of genuineness.
oh u do know every frame a painting
But I do insist you check out YMS and Jack's movie reviews. There are 500x more deep artsy films than blockbusters in the world.
Love the use of the Minas Tirith/Gondor theme during the part on needing to be brave. A more stirring piece of music there never was!
I really like your idea of a new rating system. Though I'd be really worried about the impact of children viewing certain films. That can leave mark.
Movies or Films are the nourishment my mind needs to survive. They provide room for me to immerse in wonderful worlds I dream I could visit. They provide adventures I'm too afraid to undertake. Films induce me with curiosity by exploring humanity through many diverse characters and situations. Movies shock me with the truth of things I thought impossible and surprise me with the lies of things I thought impossible. Films intrigue me, they entertain me, they make me cry and laugh, often at the same time. But what movies do the most, is to give me freedom, because in movies ANYTHING is possible.
The part with the kids at the end is beautiful :')
I think this is a big step towards a world that is in touch with themselves and with each other rather than avoiding issues, if psychology has taught us anything it's that suppressing thought, problems, ect, is bad and just hurts us in the long run, the hard questions that people don't want to face right now end up facing them later on their death beds and going through big philosophical questions creates a great amount of benefit and better lives for the veiwers, thank you and I hope that The School Of Life finds a lot of success
Another great aspect of cinema is it's ability to activate the imagination by taking us outside our own lived reality and expand it by relating other perspectives and realities.
Omg BEST part of the LotR soundtrack around 7:00 !!!
Those movies helped me stay alive in my rough teenage years.
Right back to those fandom feels
great work guys! wish I could just broadcast these for everyone to watch.
i'd love to come across more pop culture videos for they're very relatable and eye opening.
lots of love.
Thank you for your amazing content.
I was genuinely waiting for Nerdwriters voice.
I am surprised and glad to see that shot from Baraka/Samsara. Also, I think it would be SO INTERESTING if Alain discussed some of his personal favorites. I only recall him to have mentioned Linklater and the 'before trilogy' once in his speech and I was so excited!!!
I'm doing my assignment on society and film and your video really helped me a lot man. Thank you so much. This channel deserves much more than this
the point about film showing us the consequences of actions that we at first thought to be small and insignificant, really applies to black mirror.
I enjoyed seeing the montage of clips from several classic films. There is still artistic cinema being made. It just takes some effort to find it.
Love all the old ones
Fantastically idealistic suggestions. Maybe one day art and cinema can be better used to medicate the human condition.
That last clip was a wonderful conclusion to the video.
you make films look so much better
Fantastic insights as to what film should be. It's a pity the major player in production is the US releasing mostly superficial mindless junk.
thank you for making this. I love cinema for all of these reasons you listed. you also provided new reasons and special insights about what cinema can do for people. this is a very basic, simple comment, but I asked you guys for this video and you delivered. thank you! :)
Best UA-cam channel. Thanks for the content, please keep doing it as well as you do.
Best channel ever. Helps me to understand so many untouched matters like modern society or deep philosophical issues.
p.s. the information is not off-topic at all and only contains the necessary facts, presented clearly and in a few words. Great work!
Here after Scorsese's comments on marvel films.
Much as I enjoy this video, being a huge film fan myself, I hope that TSoL might begin documenting specific filmmakers just as you have been for philosophers, sociologists, literary authors, artists, etc. There are many, past and present, whose work express constant themes, how we live and attitudes toward living which would be fascinating to explore. Such as Jean Renoir, Yasujiro Ozu, Eric Rohmer, Terrence Malick and many many others.
I would love to see such videos exploring filmmakers from the humanities perspective. :)
Lawrence of Arabia is such a gorgeous film. I love this channel already but as a filmmaker, I absolutely love this video.
What I find interesting about films is the ones that tell the "story" of an actual event that took place in society. It is like there is this need to have a definitive "narrative" of what happened. For instance the recent film about Sully Sullivan. It is strange because there is this need in our society to re-tell the story via a specific perspective. It is like a reporter "telling you" what you just saw. It is like once it is recorded in film then it did actually happen. Also it presents social schema's of how one "should" feel in a given situation. Much study needs to take place regarding socialization via film.
Red balloon is beautiful!!!my brave is obviously amazing!!
Since a very young age, I´ve had a deep passion and love for the art of filmmaking. I believe cinema is the most influential art medium in society, as well as the most transcendental. Films transport us to worlds like or unlike ours, where we are presented to characters with flaws like us, we sympathize with the character; these characters reflect ourselves. Film is the only way an artist can express emotion through color, lighting, composition, framing, sound, music, performances, editing and dialogue. Film combines the visual, the auditory, the literal to craft a piece of art that can touch the heart of someone, somewhere for the better. We rely on film.
Cinema Paradiso
Movies as medication/meditation. I'm glad I'm not the only one that shares this view.
film is an expansion of consciousness
You guys should do videos on movie directors like Kurosawa and Linklater.
Teared up at the end. Beautiful essay!
I forgot what movie it was but they had a really good interpretation of what cinema meant to them. They said dreams lasts for about an hour or so (or i guess the process of dreams in sleep). And it's like you're in a complete trance when you're dreaming. It's the same in movies that have almost the same time length so when you're watching a movie, it's also like you're dreaming and escaping the real world.
Cinema for Imagination 🎥✨✌️
This video pretty much explains why I enjoy anime so much. Anime is niche that only few millions of people enjoy but I feel like it invokes more emotion out of me than other entertainment mediums could ever do. Don't get me wrong I love movies and video games as well but for different reasons. I feel each medium has the potential to invoke emotions in their unique way and all the medium have not hit their fullest potential, with the expection being movies.
I'm honestly so bored when I watch movies with my family on the sofa
Cinema is too precious
I loved that you played jimmy henrix In the background
Mark Cousins, such a gift
Greatest selection of movies!!
You should do a video on video games
Wade Spraberry or better VR
Oh God no!!!
It also has an immense affect on your social conditioning which is one of the reasons you have your anxieties or inferiority complex in the first place. Most films depict a world far from reality and thus flaw your expectations of life. Lastly watching movies is an utterly passive activity and therefore decreases your motivation ( which will definitly not help you solve your problems!).
I do believe in some of the positive effects mentioned in this video ( espacially for a small amount of movies ) but they get outweighed by their negative counterparts!
I think that's kind of the point of the video. It's talking about what "good" films should be like, and what effects should it have in us.
Depicting a world far from reality IS the point to most films. That it creates "false" expectations is not the movies fault now is it? Having expectations already is a dangerous thing, having false ones is more so, but they usually have deeper roots than external inputs. There is hardly a movie that you cant take something out if it, however small, even though I grant that its becoming harder with all the flood in superheroes movies that are just bland noise, but even those should at least provide a comfortable 2h of relaxation from daily chores.
what a beautiful analysis of cinema.
Loved the idea of revision of certification....
These videos are wonderful, although I'd prefer a more theoretical approach, similar to your 'Philosophy' videos. However , you guys are so well-read that I truly value your take on every single subject.
sir. I thank for being my teacher.
A functional letter rating system sounds fucking brilliant. I've always seen that power in film. Lets make it happen!
Great vid and great choice of music!
Thoroughly enjoyed this--so well thought through. Thanks.
Nothing is stopping psychologists from categorizing movies this way. It's only a matter of collaborating and getting started. It's a beautiful endeavor and I'd be very happy to see the result. The involvement of psychologists in movie ratings and categorizations would be a great change, given how unscientific, inconsistent, prudish but not anti-violence, and otherwise problematic the current rating system is.
Thanks for the film list. I'll try to watch each one of them.
Just thought I really need to leave this comment: I'm in love with school of life!! (please always remain this good) . *clicks on replay button* Thanks!!
Lovely music in the end is a fragment of Faure's Requiem
Putting the songs used in the video in the description would be much appreciated. There's a really good selection of music in this video especially. Unless am I missing it in the description?
thanks for the movie recomendations!
What a stunning tribute to film.
this video is just beautiful no words
I think most of this isn't just cinema, it's the stories they tell. For example, the same happens with literature. It's just that cinema is the most popular form of art atm.
Very True.
I almost cried at the end
I loved your theory on the purpose of film. This is how I feel about film too, it should educate and improve our lives. Well done.
I would like to implement some of Tolstoy's principles/ideas of what 'art is for' into a film. The idea of showing the inner world of every character (protagonists, antagonists) is really appealing, but I'm not sure it's been done much.
Goosebumps man, goosebumps
Thank you for making this video. I am of the same viewpoint, it's very reassuring to hear ones thoughts reflected.
Thank you sir for this great video. it was enlightening and what I was looking for.
Thumbs up for the 'Barry Lyndon' reference.!
I think movies, books, music, TV shows, games or any art is the only thing that develops our ability to think and to become better people, more open minded, more accepting of people and things. Art passes on ideas from various generations and the good ideas hold true even after centuries. Reading those ideas in forms of books, watching them in forms of movies opens up our mind to the vast possibilities, makes us think, contemplate and thus, become better people with more understanding abilities. Art is, I would say, what grows us spiritually.
Yes, most of us have the capacity. In fact, everyone does. But not everyone thinks so much, not everyone can think everything that various philosophers have given us in form of books. And after consuming art, you are free to judge it and draw your own conclusions.
And media/art can be used for indoctrination, definitely. But it doesn't seem like it is. If yes, do explain how they make people more narrow minded.
This video we just watched is art. Did it do more harm than good ?
dgreyz
When I see SOL videos, they do not blind me into their way of thinking. It just sometimes matches with my already existing thoughts or are different in which case I just get a new perspective. There is no force or pressure.
And I don't think movies are a source of indoctrination, it is not imposed upon us. And how does having free will cause problems ? I didn't get your point.
My parents are very orthodox, I live in an orthodox country. They were even more orthodox when I was younger, but improved over time. If a girl wears revealing clothes, they won't be offended by it anymore. That's because of the Hollywood movies they saw. Subconsciously, they accepted the fact over time that it's normal to wear whatever you like and that everybody does it. This is just one example, I've seen many changes in them over time. So even the shittiest of movie subconsciously helps make you more accepting. It obviously depends on the context.
Indoctrination is religion. Where if you don't believe in god, you can be cast aside and will obviously go to "hell". They give you something to fear, fear of life and exile (not literal) if you don't believe in their system. On the other hand, movies give you a context which after watching might or might not have been impactful, but nothing is imposed upon you. You are free to think as you wish.