From personal experience and discussion with other informed voices in the film community, I’ve developed a shorthand set of thumb rules: ten film commandments, my decem praecepta. This series of articles breaks down what I’m on about.

Continuing on:

“6. Honor the filmography of thy father and thy mother.”

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Every movie is a new movie if you haven’t seen it before (if anyone can tell me who said this first, beep me). Films from a person’s parents or grandparents era are just as valid today as whatever superhero flashy horror space opera is the new current thing of the moment (insert mandatory “kids these days” cliché and get off my cemetery lawn).

When motion pictures first appeared, it was a trick of the light, persistence of human vision at 24 images per second creating the illusion of movement. Adding music, audible dialogue, and color along with refinements of scope and scale, it pushed the envelope of possibility while creating the cinematic experience adapted from the theatrical stage. Unfortunately, many of the films of yesteryear are in a state of decay or have already been lost in spite of efforts to procure, preserve, and digitize past works.

The National Film Registry only has 875 titles listed (as of this writing), “movies deemed ‘culturally, historically or aesthetically significant’ … not selected as the ‘best’ American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring importance to American culture.” As a reminder, there are 195 countries on Planet Earth, so this is by no means an exhaustive list. As South Korean Parasite director Bong Joon-ho said during his Golden Globes acceptance speech, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

The American Film Institute has their 100 greatest films of all time; the British Film Institute has their greatest films of all time. Like stage productions, sometimes movies are remade (see my fifth film commandment) and may bring something new to the table, but most often they are products of their time, moments of thought given life through visual storytelling. Whether monochromatic, silent, or in a different language, film is for all… and don’t get me started on the need to preserve physical media at all costs.

Disclaimer: these are my opinions; feel free to articulate your own. 💀

Up next:

“7. Thou shalt not murder thy ending with ambiguity.”

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