Maybe, it all started with the epics minstrels used to sing across the lands. Then storytellers continued this oral tradition. Later came writing and with more people learning to read and the coming of the printing press, reading became one of the main ways to quench our thirst for stories. However, the visual part have always been inseparable from a good story and that’s what categorized good stories as such. The ability to imagine pictures of heroes rising, kingdoms falling, tragedies happen to characters, and always seeking a place for ourselves in those stories; a place where we fit for the better or for the worse.

Nothing in our history, as a race full of passionate stories, has had a greater impact than films. We did not have to imagine our heroes accomplish the things we would want to accomplish ourselves anymore; we could see all that on the big screen. Picture was enough at the beginning. Then sound effects and talking came next, all the way to the most sophisticated special effects we have in today’s films. A magical mixture of reality and imagination has captured us for over a century now. Films with all their stories, passion, hope and memories, the good, the bad and the ugly, have been a perfect fit to our human race.

Film Influences will not be about the making of films, the meaning of films, or the analysis of some directing techniques or any similar autopsy done to films. It will be about appreciating films, trying to see them from a different perspective, and above all trying to enjoy them as the newest means of art humans have created. Film influences may be about new or old films; it may be about films you know very well or others you have not heard of; it will be just a place I hope can recommend some good movies for you to watch, or trigger some missing aspects in films you may decide to watch again.

December 22, 2014