We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls. They allow us to enter other minds-not simply in the sense of identifying with the characters, although that is an important part of it, but by seeing the world as another person sees it. François Truffaut said that for a director it was an inspiring sight to walk to the front of a movie theater, turn around, and look back at the faces of the audience, turned up to the light from the screen. If the film is any good, those faces reflect an out-of-the-body experience: The audience for a brief time is somewhere else, sometime else, concerned with lives that are not its own.…
We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls. They allow us to enter other minds-not simply in the sense of identifying with the characters, although that is an important part of it, but by seeing the world as another person sees it. François Truffaut said that for a director it was an inspiring sight to walk to the front of a movie theater, turn around, and look back at the faces of the audience, turned up to the light from the screen. If the film is any good, those faces reflect an out-of-the-body experience: The audience for a brief time is somewhere else, sometime else, concerned with lives that are not its own. Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us into better people. -The Great Movies
British critic Derek Malcolm's definition of a great movie: any movie he could not bear the thought of never seeing again. -The Great Movies II
I believe good movies are a civilizing force. They allow us to empathize with those whose lives are different from our own. -The Great Movies III
When people asked me where they should begin in looking at classic films, I never knew what to say. Now I can say, "Plunge into these Great Movies, and go where they lead you."
The balcony is closed. Roger Ebert 1942-2013
