A movie is a recorded sequence of images that is displayed on a screen at a rate sufficiently fast to create the appearance of motion. A film of this type is usually accompanied by sound, and is presented in a cinema or a movie theatre. A movie may be considered to be a work of art if it achieves a level of skill that makes it beautiful, appealing and stimulating on more than one level, and therefore has something to say.
Movies are often a re-presentation of a time that people who watch them were not around to see in person, though they can also be films of historical events and the like. They can also be a means of entertaining and swaying the audience, of exposing them to new cultures or viewpoints, or of giving them the opportunity to escape into another world for a little while.
Some movies are sexy, some are funny, and others are sad. Movies that are skillfully made are those that do all of these things, and are therefore great films.
Jean-Luc Godard’s seismic directing debut is a bravado deconstruction of the gangster movie that also reinvented moviemaking itself, with cubistic jump cuts, restless handheld camerawork, location shoots and eccentric pacing. What starts out as a sexy fling between petty thief Belmondo and Sorbonne-bound gamine Seberg becomes a surreal meditation on art, culture and society. The film’s influence is felt everywhere from Fellini to Shutter Island.