While movies are for the most part, a format of the arts that many people van consume, without even giving much thought about it, it is non the less an art.
I'm not saying all movies are insightful, beautifully made, or thought provoking; although some people may argue that even in summer block busters like 'Transformers ', you can find something to be learned. I wouldn't necessarily agree, but that's beside the point.
The thing is, that, not because an art form is easy to consume, and in fact, being consumed massibly by almost all of the population, it means that said art form is less or more meaningful than any other (say literature, sculpture, and yes even architecture).
Often a movie needs to be either excruciatingly dark, or complex in narrative and execution, or so bland that is making a 'statement' on its blandness, in order to be considered a piece of art.
I happen to disagree.
Art is supposed to be moving, to be touching, in both positive or pleasurable ways, and in dark and uncomfortable ways. But bottom line is supposed to transmit something to the subjects observing or better yet, experiencing it.
By that very definition is why a lot of seemingly 'trivial' affairs can be referred to as 'art'.
Like some performance art acts, that is just about some guy sitting on a chair for 2 weeks. May not be for a political, religious, not even metaphorical purpose, but it's happening. And when a act of human creation, whose sole purpose is to create reaction from other human beings, does exactly that; well then it is art.
So going back to the movies, why is it so important to catalogue movies as artful or not?
What does one gain from distinguishing artful pieces?
Well, the reason I choose movies, is because as I said, is quite a universal activity, to sit down and whatch a story unfold; by its very nature, a movie requires you to be passive during its duration in order to follow its story, characters and visuals. It's (hopefully) only after you saw the movie when you start discussing it with other people, when you have seen the whole story develop. Having its subjects in such a 'passive' state, movies are the perfect "easy" (for lack of a better term) art form to consume.
That is why so many people watching the movie version of a book instead of actually reading it.
So, what better way to discuss art than with the most consumed medium in wich it is produced?
Can the movies be a parallel to all art forms? I think so.
But to transition from the movies to architecture we have a long way to go.
Stay tuned!
-M