How films are replacing religion in our cinematic age.

[Kire]

Cinema—The New Cathedral of Hollyworld
How films are replacing religion in our cinematic age.

“The mind is insatiable for meaning, drawn from, or projected, into the world of appearances, for unearthing hidden analogies, which connect the unknown with the familiar, and show the familiar in an unexpected light.”

—Arthur Koestler



Imagine yourself on a Sunday afternoon. You’ve just walked into a very tall building, been greeted with a smile by the same person who greeted you last week, and ushered into a dark room with seats all facing forward. There is music playing. You feel reverent. And then the previews start. You are about to worship at the new altar of technological culture, the movie theatre.

After one hundred years of tinkering, film has arrived as an alternate form of transcendence, replacing in interesting and strange ways the once venerated position held by the institutional church. Or, to put it another way, the medium of motion film has finally received its birthright: born right around the time Nietzsche declared that God was dead, film has now matured to the point that America is now accepting cinema as the culture’s chief myth maker.

Think about the odd similarities: Churches and movie theaters are both large buildings in public space, with signs out front indicating what is going on inside each week. As physical structures, they both create a sense of sacred space through the architectural elements of high ceilings, long aisles running the length of the main room, darkened rooms (with few if any windows), the use of dim lighting, sweeping wall curvatures, and the use of curtains to enhance the sacrality of the front space. Both offer similar row-style seating, and as an incentive to increase attendance, many churches and cinemas are now offering “stadium-style” seats.

There are an increasing number of churches (in Washington, D.C, Virginia Beach, VA, and San Diego, CA to start with) that actually rent a movie theater to host services, a nice arrangement for both institutions since religion is now American culture’s only legitimate excuse for being awake at all on Sunday morning. Entering a space of this size and design, you find yourself speaking in hushed tones: you feel small, a feeling that encourages acquiescence to any messages—fact or fiction—received therein. There is, in both cases, the feeling that something larger is going on, and that only through submission can you be a part of it. Albert Speer, Hitler’s Armaments Minister and chief architect, understood this feeling implicitly when he said that architecture could be a form of propaganda.

Once inside either church or cinema, the ritual begins, offering the attendee an experience designed to stimulate all the senses with signature sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches. As Aldous Huxley saw it, attending church was the most exciting part of medieval man’s weekly life, because only there could he escape his otherwise brown and gray world of dun and dung. The medieval church’s incense, rose windows, gold altarpieces, and priestly adornments of silk and rubies were one of the earliest forms of multimedia experience. These tactile symbols heightened the worshipper’s sense of the presence and magnificence of an otherwise invisible God.

More: http://metaphilm.com/philm.php?id=6_0_2_0

[MichaelJH]

1. Well written I do say

Movies and the people I meet give me insight to better understand the shit we are being fed by the right wing church (I live in SC). Not everyone likes to read, but, movies are opening the doorway to truth about this insane world we live in.

I see them as a blessing on us all.

It sure helped me out of a closed-minded southern thinking daze. Damn I was an ignorant redneck from a small town with one red light. It is great to live in the world with the rest of the family.

Peace

[Az]

2. Stories have always been conveyance for tales of morality and social form

Religions adapted the powerful imagery of gods in order to better reinforce the stories and give them a common background. During the reign of the Roman Gods feilty was sworn to them not so much to affirm one's belief in them. Rather it was a way to affirm acceptance of the social and ethical codes of the realm.

Nonreligious literature and performance adapted from this same form. Notice how a good story conveys some understanding of society or human nature. They teach us things about the world around us or the interaction of those living in it.

Movies, stories, and religion have always done the same thing. Convey an understanding of things around us. An understanding of how things are supposed to be, could be, or might have been.

[xchrom]

3. there's alot there that is true.

it reminds that the greeks used the amphitheatere in very much the same way -- and in fact the theatre had a divine symbolism then.

[kwassa]

4. I think religion is really being replaced by shopping and football

This is really where you find people on Sundays, at the mall, the stadium, or in front of the television.

All of these alternatives offer the multi-sensory experiences. Many "contemporary" churchs offer their own multi-media presentations, with film clips and Power Point presentations, along with contemporary Christian music with the lyrics on the screen and the proverbial bouncing ball.

[thegreatwildebeest]

5. It's all the same...

Does it really matter what its replaced by? It's all the same twice removed crap, that removes the individual from direct contact with others and himself. Watching a football game is just as soul deadning as going to a Church, watching tv, or any other experience where we are mere spectators.

[Zynx]

6. Except movie attendance is lower than it was in the 1950s.

Fewer people are going to theaters now than then.

[Az]

7. We all have altars in our homes

People worship daily at their own personal altars.

[kwassa]

8. Actually, I think this thesis is pretty dumb

Some of the observations about the sensory impact of church rituals, and movie theater rituals are correct. The rest is pretty shallow analysis.

some of this thesis is ridiculous.
this in particular:
"Entering a space of this size and design, you find yourself speaking in hushed tones: you feel small, a feeling that encourages acquiescence to any messages—fact or fiction—received therein. There is, in both cases, the feeling that something larger is going on, and that only through submission can you be a part of it."

This is "Architecture as Tyranny". It wildly exagerates the power of architecture, and incorrectly denotes the purpose of both church architecture and movie theater architecture as submission.

And ignores live theater architecture, and the entire history of the theater.

and, as others have pointed out, movie theater attendence has been declining for over 50 years, knocked down by the invention of television.

[soleft]

9. I've always said this is why the Oscars are such a big deal

It's a pagan religious fesitval - once a year we honor the gods. There's a reason why Mt. Olympus is in Hollywood.

[kwassa]

10. Hollywood, in reality, is a pretty run-down neighborhood ....

with some serious Hispanic gang issues on the east side of Hollywood. Most of the housing was built as working class housing.

It is largely a myth, because the only major film studio that was ever in the Hollywood area is Paramount. There are many film-related businesses there, and second and third tier studios but it doesn't look prosperous.

The major studios were actually spread over the west side of LA and the valley just north of Hollywood. MGM was in Culver City, 20th Century Fox in West LA, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers over the hill in the San Fernando Valley.

Mount Olympus is just a little hill-top neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills.