Observe the Greek painting and cinematic from the movie ‘300’.
300 Fight Scene v. Spartan Art
Paint and film, two mediums which artist can use to make awe-inspiring images and entertain audiences for hours. The former being an archaic form of art spanning back to the beginning of mankind and evolving from simple spirals on cave walls to elegant strokes of acrylics and water colors to produce almost lifelike images, while the latter is a relatively new technology which has enabled man to see his world in ways never before thought to be possible. Benjamin would say, “with the close- up, space expands; with slow motion, movement is extended” about how film could effect man’s perception on his surrounding world.
To show both these slowing and zooming capabilities in film, one must only look to the recent action film ‘300’. With the camera angles and use of slowing effects new details are brought to fight scenes that would have previously gone unnoticed, but with “the ingenious guidance of the camera” these small details are clear as day. Things that once would have been missed with a blink now turn into artful and elegant twisting and contortion of the human form for all to see. In this slowing of relatively common actions the camera not only shows us “familiar qualities of movement but reveals in them entirely unknown ones”.
While the painting shows a figure in an appearingly dynamic state, it is still frozen on the material which it was painted. With film these images come to life on screens, walls, or any other medium that will hold its picture. Benjamin still urges that though one may appear to be more significant or beyond the other: “Painting simply is in no position to present an object for simultaneous collective experience, as it was possible for architecture at all times, for the epic poem in the past, and for the movie today”.
David Scully
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