The Language of Filmmaking

Los Angeles -- There is a desire among everyone to reach beyond their preconception of what is real and what is not.  To loosen the bonds that tie ones imagination to the boundaries of societal mores and as a fail safe prevent the burgeoning artist from truly reaching the full potential to be all that he or she can be...to borrow an ad slogan from the US Army recruitment campaign.  

So where does this leave us if we are bound by public inhibition and self doubt?  Well usually we are left to ponder the what if's as we draw nearer to our closing curtain call.  The angst for some is unbearable for others it is a despair punctuated by the impotence of a sigh from a terminally ill patient eagerly awaiting fate's relief.  

As depressing as this seems it is quite naturally a hopeful view of the creative process that leads one to a point in one's life to cede the practical for the desirable and in that moment reach his and her creative catharsis through the best medium clearly to offer a global proscenium where the human drama is fully exhibited and shared without adulteration.  For it is not the number of years we have lived but the level of impact these years have wrought in influencing the affluence of our developmental growth over all practicality from the uneventful to the quite predictable.

And there you have pretty much what the message of a lot of the films in the Janus Film Collection tally ho in their sight and sound.  Stories of human triumph and tragedy skillfully woven in the simplicity of a heartbeat and the driving force from an astute rational that makes us think, makes us experience, makes us participants rather than ubiquitous observers.

The Janus Film Collection is a marvel to experience and a marvel to see.  The collection is a treasure trove of films each remarkable in their story telling and character portrayal, yet simultaneously quite entertaining and fun to watch.   They were made for entertainment value and not as a treatise on film making.  

What these beautiful classical thought provoking pictures emit is the style of film making and the depth of the stories depicted through an artful deft mode of blocked stage direction or mise en scene, cinematography, lighting and sound design, but above all else the mechanics of the editing process. That is where these pictures define the boundaries of their timelessness through the hand of the silent director commonly identified as the editor, which in many instances is the director himself.

The Criterion Collection - Janus Films by EgamiMedia1