In India as a general knowledge question, they frequently ask which is the youngest language or culture. For that matter as I have travelled to so many different states, friends and family frequently ask me if I picked up the language of that state. most of the time I have faintly acquainted myself with language by over-hearing others speak. In my years at NID i also learned first level French. I did all of it cause its kind of exciting to learn a new language. To relate and compare one language to another. At times you even learn a language with comparison to another. Most importantly the language reflects the people who speak it.(this inference of mine & is debatable) It is like the face of that culture.
Like the design that is made from the arrangement of dominoes cannot be seen till they all fall down, this morning I saw the whole picture of the language I was learning for the last few years(or maybe all my life). - FILM LANGUAGE.
Its evolution has not happened over a particular region but has happened over the soul purpose of communication.(like every other language). I believe that it overwrites all the other cultures across the globe. irrespective to color, sex, religion etc.
I was told that if you introduce a camera to a tribe who has never seen photographs it will change its destiny. Imagine what films can do. Why imagine, just take a look at what films have done. its all around us.
i'll tell you about the dominoes that fell this morning which made me see the whole picture about the film language. (accumulation of all the books i have read so far on film, this is not my original thought)
Dreyer perceived that the silent film had gone far as it could go,its artistic potentialities were fully explored. By the end of 20s film language was formed. Edison and other scientist had formed the basic element the alphabet. From it Griffith made words, good, strong, simple words,with which he told some stirring tales. Chaplin used those word in a poetic ,funny and a comprehensible way.the German directors to continue the analogy, increase the richness of vocabulary by simply adding adjectives . the Russians like Eisenstien, Pudovkin and Kuleshov were responsible to form to this language. they added syntax and subtler forms of pronunciation. the french avante-garde directors added a few choice swear-words and blasphemies to give the language flavor. Rene clair made beautiful epigrams out of it. Dreyer demonstrated how it could be be used succinctly. and in all this what did the businessmen do just made money out of it?
and i do feel a sense of belonging to this culture. at times i crave to talk to people who can converse to me in film. and i also feel home sick when i'm away from it.(for which my friends call me a workaholic) . Now that know it is a language, as I use it i know it is more than just a language.
