A REFLECTION ABOUT MOVIES

& the STORIES THAT THEY TELL

A few months ago I made a reflection on movies and the stories

that they tell. I had spent a couple of nights watching over again

some scenes from "The War of the Worlds" by S. Spielberg. It

occurred to me at a certain moment there that I was returning to

the scenes that regarded the characters before the big events of

the story even took place, with their devastating and tragic effe-

cts. My favorite parts, the ones that I was enjoying watching

again, were the introductory scenes about the main character de-

aling with his ex-wife, their discussions about his home and their

children, the tone of voice that was at times tense and reproachful

and eventually upbeat and complimentary. I was going back to

the simple scenes about the relationships of the dad with his kids,

playing baseball with his son, deciding with his daughter what to

do about the splinter in her hand, or the bio-food that she ordered.

After those, of course, the events of the story unfolded, and there were the tense and intriguing scenes regarding the fights with

the aliens, the dangerous escapes and the breath-taking adventures that the characters have to go through to finally find relief in

the end. These particular sequences are undoubtedly the most complex and difficult to put on film, including computer graphic

images that require months to be completed, spectacular events such as explosions, crashes of buildings, cars, parts of the city,

stunts of the actors. All of this represents of course the most expensive and time-consuming part of the movie. Still, when I was

flipping here and there on some scenes, it wasn't what I enjoyed seeing again the most.

Something to that effect I felt about the movie "Titanic". The sequences that were the most spectacular and intense were certainly the ones about the sinking of the ship, the desperate strife for survival of the passengers, and the ultimate epilogue of the events. From a production point of view, they surely also demanded the greatest commitment and work. Whenever I have watched just some scenes of the film, however, I was attracted to the moments of the first meeting of Jack and Rose, their dinner and party, their fights and reconciliations, and their relation-ships with their friends and relatives.

I felt in a similar way when I watched "Terminator 3". There are sequences in that movie that include the smashing of glass show-

rooms, parts of buildings, the crashing of cars, explosions and destructions of several settings, which were at times reproduced

for real, I suppose, and at times represented through computer graphics. I remember car chases that must have taken many mon-

ths to edit, let alone the shooting with the shattering of motorbikes, cars and the flipping over of trucks. Any scenes that I selected to watch over again, however, were about the two young characters in the first part of the movie, before the spectacular and dramatic events of the story, when they meet, they fight, they remember each other from somewhere else and get to know each other better.

In all these examples, there were complex, elaborate and dramatic sequences which consisted in the body of the story (or of the

unfortunate events, in the case of Titanic). They recounted the happenings, unfolding through the film, and they certainly repre-

sented the greatest task for the movie makers, in terms of production and of financial costs. However I found myself to particu-

larly enjoy watching over again the sequences which were probably the simplest, easiest and cheapest to shoot that regarded few

people and their personal relationships about each other and others around them.

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