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While
motion picture films have been around for more than a
century, film is still a relative newcomer in the pantheon
of fine arts. In the 1950s, when television became widely
available, industry analysts predicted the demise of local
movie theatres. Despite competition from television's
increasing technological sophistication over the 1960s and
1970s, such as the development of colour television and
large screens, motion picture cinemas continued. In the
1980s, when the widespread availability of inexpensive
videocassette recorders enabled people to select films for
home viewing, industry analysts again wrongly predicted the
death of the local cinemas.
In the
1990s and 2000s, the development of digital DVD players,
home theatre amplification systems with surround sound and
subwoofers, and large LCD or plasma screens enabled people
to select and view films at home with greatly improved audio
and visual reproduction. These new technologies provided
audio and visual that in the past; only local cinemas had
been able to provide: a large, clear widescreen presentation
of a film with a full-range, high-quality multi-speaker
sound system. Once again, industry analysts predicted the
demise of the local cinema. Local cinemas have changed in
the 2000s and moved towards digital screens, a new approach
which will allow for easier, quicker distribution of films
(via satellite or hard disks), a development which some
would say has given local theatres a reprieve from their
predicted demise.
Movies have been around
from as early as the 1860’s
–
they were called magic lanterns and would display sequences
of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the
pictures to appear to be moving.
There are different genres of films, action, animation,
comedy, disaster, documentary, epic, teen, thriller,
musical, romance, science fiction, superhero, sport, war and
westerns to name a few!
Films considered the greatest ever in past audience polls
are such greats as Lawrence of Arabia which was voted best
epic film in the past and Peter O’Toole’s performance was
ranked number 1 in a poll of the 100 greatest performances
of all times! Other films such as The Godfather parts 1 &
2, The Shawshank Redemption, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
Pulp Fiction, Shindler’s List, Star Wars Episode V: The
Empire Strikes Back, Citizen Kane, 2001 A Space Odyssey,
Singin’ In The Rain, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,
Casablanca & The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,
Goodfellas, have all been rated ‘top films’ in past audience
polls.
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