Smallsteps is singing songs including Do Re Me and My favourite things at an upcoming school concert, so we did something I have wanted to do for a while, we watched The Sound of Music.
I didn't just want to watch this.
I want to watch a lot of old movies as a family, like the Pink Panther series with Peter Sellers, My Fair Lady and a personal favourite due to Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's. Because old movies are awesome and so much better than the new ones. It isn't the acting and definitely not the overall visuals, it is the space.
Space to experience, to think, and even to discuss.
The sound of music is almost three hours long, so we watched it in pieces. There was even the intermission point in the streaming version to give space for a break, something I wish they would add into some of the new movies at the cinemas for all the small-bladdered people, like my wife.
Watching the movie together (finished it last night) was great and it really highlighted for me how much better the old movies were. The timeline of the movie shifts quickly covering lots of ground, but each scene is long and patiently lets an entire song roll out without interruption. For the impatient audience of today, it would be unbearable, but I found it refreshing and it gave the opportunity to really listen, absorb, think and add bits of conversation, giving context to Smallsteps. Not only that, there are lots of scenes where there is no dialogue at all, just the score, and it really is a score. The background music is a constant orchestral melody that mixes multiple versions of the film's songs, giving even more impact to them.
Acting in old films is more like stage acting today, with less nuance and more flamboyance. Yet it still adds drama, because there is the spatial rest areas for the audience to build their own story. In the new films, everything is provided at breakneck speed, leaving now gaps for the viewer to make the story their own. For me, it is a big reason why the new films are unlikely to be classics, because while they draw the audience in, once the credits roll, the viewer carries very little with them.
The old movies are more of a shared experience between the film and the viewer, leaving space for thought. The new movies are for consumption only, one-direction transmission that leaves nothing open for the viewer to create, and the speed of the pacing means that even if a thought does arise, there is no way to process it before it is bombarded again with the next piece of information, then the next. New movies and shows ram action down the throat of the viewer, otherwise the viewer gets bored and starts scrolling their phone on platforms that ram more content that doesn't get thought upon down the throat.
The style of film making in the modern age treats the audience as a passive participant, unable to think for themselves, unable to fill gaps, needing everything to be pointed out explicitly. Moreover, to keep the interest of an audience who has the attention span of an old goldfish, it has to continually push action, leaving no negative space where the viewer can rest and build their world, and subsequently, their emotional attachment. The modern movie is made to entertain, but leave no lasting impression. And given the amount of consumed content now, maybe it makes sense because people aren't going to bother to think on it past the credits anyway.
Just like all the gadgets, cars, appliances, clothes and even relationships, movies are not made to last now, they are disposable. Pure consumer items that will have a lifespan of a couple years at the most until the streaming services dump them to be forgotten on a hard-drive somewhere, never to be heard from again.
Smallsteps didn't understand all the context around the Nazis in Austria in The sound of Music, but we are currently reading a Roald Dahl autobiography where he is a pilot in Africa and the Middle East going up against the Nazis there in the same war. So it has led to a bit of a different perspective for her, and given a "face" to visualise as we read now. She has questions of course though, and I think that being able to slowly eat the meal of the movie meant she was able to process larger amounts, and develop more perspective so that her questions are far more complex than if it was a fast-paced, new movie.
I am looking forward to watching many more of these old classics, because they give scenes and topics in ways we wouldn't discuss now, using language and elocution long lost, and a clarity and honesty that is sorely needed in a world where information can't be trusted, and has become weaponised. They aren't created to feed the eyes, they are there to inspire the mind.
Taraz
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