Styles Of Radical Will: The Value Of Cinema

Cinema and theater have always been two contrasting methods in displaying art. Each medium has its own backing as there are advantages in using one over the other. As technology progressed, film became more accessible and easier to produce, making it more popular with people of recent generations. Cinema depends on the camera perspective and editing of the film, meaning that film is basically “limitless” as editors can add countless special effects to improve the film overall, rather than put all of the attention on the actors. In her essay, “Styles of Radical Will, filmmaker Susan Sontag, notes that “because camera can be used to project a relatively, passive, unselective kind of vision- as well as the highly selective (“edited”) vision generally associated with movies- cinema is a medium as well as an art, in the sense that it can encapsulate any of the performing arts and render it in a film transcription.” She also states that “because one can make a movie of a play but not a play of a movie, cinema had an early but fortuitous connection with the stage,” for cinema was able to profit off its ability to transform theater into the filmmaker’s own representation.

Because these actors are the focal point of the show, it is important that they form a warm relationship with the audience to draw in their attention. Theater also takes great pride in the backdrop or setting of the play, as only one backdrop is used during a play, but may be modified during the performance. Theater’s reliance on these two factors attribute to its appeal to “the class society” (Sontag 103). Beauty and the Beast is better as a film because Disney’s animation accentuates the effects that magic had on the Beast on his life and his servants, and highlights the acute details in the