Film-Watching and Concentration

Over my life of watching films, I've noticed how hard it can be at times to concentrate for prolonged

periods on any given movie.  The task of watching with undivided attention for an hour and a half to two to even three hours can be a daunting job.  As a film scholar and writer this can be troubling, knowing that I am expected to be good at watching films, always capturing every detail and passing story element and registering them in my consciousness and memory for later analysis.  I don't always manage to live up to this requirement and I assume I'm not the only one.

Film-watching that takes the most effort is when you have the type of film that depends on extensive use of intricate dialogue.  Whole scenes may pass by in which the viewer could potentially miss huge plot elements or story clues because of spoken words that fly by quite quickly.  Improvements in sound in films over the years have improved this.  Classic movies of the early to mid-twentieth century can be especially hard to comprehend because of technically inferior sound recording in comparison to today's cinema.  This, obviously wasn't a problem with silent movies in the first few decades of film's emergence when the image was the sole recipient of one's attention.  This, perhaps, is why many early critics lamented the death of silent cinema as an ending of a means of expression that typified the essence of the visual medium.  But, others have argued that with the coming of sound, film became more true to life and a solid reflection of everyday existence.

Film watching requires effort and concentration.  Fortunately, there are ways to improve one's level of concentration what will in turn improve one's film comprehension ability.  Meditation and mindfulness are practices that have been known to improve one's concentration and awareness of the present moment.  They involve the practicing of moment to moment awareness in a way that brings clarity and contentment.  Meditation is a discipline that must be continued over a period of time to bring benefit to an individual.  Meditation and mindfulness can be a tool in the aspiring film critic's arsenal to improve his or her level of concentration and comprehension of any given film-watching experience.

If one has trouble with dialogue-comprehension, one option for a viewer if watching at home is to activate the subtitle feature.  Subtitles, however can take concentration away from the visual element of the film to focus solely on the dialogue.  Subtitles are always a requirement for foreign films in which the spoken language is unknown to the viewer.

Another thing that helps is repeated viewings.  Some films only require one viewing to fully comprehend.  These are probably quite shallow, simple films.  The films that are worth critical analysis are often films that require many viewings.  Such films offer new insights and revelations with each subsequent viewing and can be very rewarding to analyze. 

In the end, the main way to become a skilled, efficient film viewer is to watch more films.  Watching films, like making them or writing about them, is an art itself and has to be developed over time if one wants to gain insight and rewards from it.