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| Can animals act? |
I sometimes wonder this, when watching a film. I understand that an animal might be able to perform tricks, like a dog being trained for a scene to leap and save a boy. The dog might be prompted to sit and raise a paw.
But when I watch a film with an animal I always think of the inner world of that animal. It’s very different from the actors who are roleplaying or embodying another human, or entity. The performance of an actor acting like a dog, compared to a dog attempting to act like a human. A dog will only act like a dog.
The dog has a different understanding of the cameras in the scene. It’s almost like when you watch a movie, the dog is directly connected to the viewer of the film even more directly than anyone else on screen. They are equals with you, an audience observing the scene. There’s a degree of non-fiction to them and their gaze, of breaking the forth wall that is ever present even in a work of complete fiction. Look for it when you see animals on screen who are characters.
NOTE
Even thinking to historical warfare, and large scale cavalry battles. I remember in history classes thinking what these experiences were like for all the horses involved, implicated in this battle.
This reality feels present in documentaries too. I realized that whenever you see a documentary that contains a phone, there’s a connection of links that could have brought you to that scene. If you had the number to the phone, you could have called at precisely the time of filming and been captured in footage, or at least interrupted things by ringing it.
Bad films - unconsciousness and effort
Something to explore, that might not be correct.
In some sense an actually good bad film is the most sincere type of film. It might be the truest film. You see this with certain directors. They’ll create something in earnest, and it is panned by critics and audiences. It becomes a cult classic. But then on their subsequent film, you can’t shake the fact that there is an awareness. Once there is an awareness of the quality of what they are making, and history around it - that magic is gone. it becomes parodic.
The film is bad, but it isn’t a good bad. It’s a bad bad, or worse a whatever bad.
In certain context a baby or a kitten is completely unaware of its cuteness. It’s almost inherently cute. When an adult grows, and then tries to be cute there is conscious effort. It is less cute.
Rough film sincerity rating guide: Good, good film = slightly sincere effort Bad good film = insincere effort. Bad bad film = false effort. Good bad film = most sincere, unconscious effort.
This seems to need refinement…
After writing this I discover this sentiment from Oscar Wilde: “all bad poetry is sincere.”