Why old films become more valuable as they age
In short: A film's meaning is never truly finished. Beyond the plot, cinema serves as a profound anthropological record, capturing the subtle, forgotten details of past societies—from hairstyles to the very way people walked—long after the original filmmakers have moved on.
In his MIT lecture, Professor David Thorburn argues that film functions as a global cultural form. While filmmakers often focus on dramatizing a specific reality, they frequently take the era's social norms for granted. Consequently, as decades pass, films undergo a transformation. They become richer artifacts of immense anthropological interest, even if the films themselves are of poor quality. This process of maturation suggests that the significance of any complex cultural artifact is constantly in flux. The meaning of a film is never entirely fixed or completed.
The value of these 'moving artifacts' lies in their ability to reflect the society from which they emerged. Even the most surreal or science-fiction elements are inevitably anchored in their cultural origins. By observing the clothing, automobiles, or even the absence of cars in older works, we gain a window into a world that no longer exists. These details provide a concrete sense of how people once lived, dressed, and carried themselves. These visual cues, such as makeup or physical environments, offer a glimpse into the everyday reality of a bygone era. They reveal the textures of a world that the creators were simply trying to dramatizing.
This evolution of meaning is not limited to historical context; it extends to the very techniques of cinematic language. The study of film as a cultural form involves analyzing the tension between different stylistic approaches, such as the contrast between American and European cinemas, the distinction between Hollywood and 'high art,' and the technical divergence between montage and mise en scène. A primary example of this power is found in the 'Odessa Steps' montage from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, a sequence that demonstrates how editing can shape cinematic impact. This lecture, part of the MIT 21L.011 course, serves as a bridge between the silent film era and the subsequent arrival of sound films.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: 5. Film as Global & Cultural Form; Montage, Mise en Scène
- Also: Lecture 5: Film as Global & Cultural Form; Montage, Mise en Scène | The Film Experience | Literature | MIT OpenCourseWare
- Also: Lecture 5: Film as Global & Cultural Form; Montage, Mise en Scène | MIT Learn
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