Frank V. Ross - What's the Point of Cinema?

FRANK V. ROSS - 

"I was watching a film called Blue is the Warmest Color and had to know what it was shot on, so during this movie in a language I did not speak in admiration of the photography I looked away from the image and the subtitles to my little phone and went to the IMDB app, typed in the name of the movie and scrolled down to ‘tech specs’, found ‘Canon EOS C300, with Angenieux Optimo Lenses, copy and pasted that, put it in my ‘notes’ app… You get it. 

I looked up having missed the last whatever of the movie, took the remote, backed it up to where I think I was, since the movie was paused got up and make some tea, cut some cheddar cheese, a few pepperoncinis… If I saw someone watching my movie like that I’d have a conniption fit (cause I know they do and every programmer or critic with a screener that doesn’t like my film, or can go either way on it, I wonder if they properly watched the movie. And, they didn’t) cause a motion picture is an involved experience. Think if you’re watching Harold and Maude and you’re looking at the phone and miss the two second cutaway to Maude’s tattoo. Or Dutch and miss the ‘Dutch Dooley Construction sign’. What about the shot of the cook in Hunt for Red October. Adrain’s hat. The glare of the rich boy to Bruno. 

The Cinema is the room that saves us from ourselves. Not to be my final point but a Cinema is why Cinema will always be better than TV, we’re too distracted at home and nobody is asked to live tweet during the new Woody Allen movie, he’s doing TV for that.

With so many ways to distribute a movie nowadays, we need to keep the big screen and lock the door to our distractions and shut the fuck up for a minute and watch a movie. A funny movie, a plot driven heist or murder mystery always functions better if you’re, you know, watching. You can’t fall into a rhythm using a pause button. How are we to let an existential crisis wash over us if we keep looking out the window and at our phone? We can’t. The point of a Cinema is the building. Like a Church, which is a building, the people are the Church, they go to a Church Building and do all their bullshit. I’ve learned as much about life from Tarkovsky as I have from Priests. More about morality from DeSica than the King James Bible…

Whoa!

Let’s dial it back. The Cineplex near my house puts it best “our world seems over run with technology. A movie theatre is not the place for it. LOL and BFF on a bright screen is distracting, so be courteous to those around you and silence or turn off your phones. If you have an emergency step out into the hallway, otherwise it can wait.”  It’s just a nice place to be."

Filmography  (as director) -

Oh! My Dear Desire - 2003

Quietly On By - 2005

Hohokam - 2007

Present Company - 2008

Audrey the Trainwreck - 2010

Tiger Tail in Blue - 2012

Bloomin Mud Shuffle - 2015

Frank V. Ross is among the most exciting American independent director's post-2000s. Tiger Tail in Blue was recently nominated at the Gotham Awards for 'Best Film Not Playing in a Cinema Near You'. His films are available to watch on Fandor, here. Bloomin Mud Shuffle is due to show later this year.