A movie is a fictional narrative recorded on a moving medium such as film and shown in a theater or on television. Movies can also be created by photographing real scenes with a motion picture camera, or they may be animated from drawings or models using traditional or computer animation techniques. They can be presented in a wide variety of genres, and they can be mass-marketed to large audiences in movie theaters (known as cinemas in British English) or broadcast on television.
The filmic medium has a unique ability to tell a story through a continuous sequence of still images that appear to be moving, and which are accompanied by musical accompaniment. This gives the illusion of time passing, creating what has been called a “hypnotic” sense of presence. It also allows for the use of close-ups, a technique that creates the impression of actual proximity.
Moreover, the ability to show a wide range of facial expressions, the speed at which events happen, and other effects contribute to an emotional involvement with the characters in a movie. These qualities have given movies a powerful role in entertainment and propaganda, whether it be the Nazi propaganda films made by Leni Riefenstahl or the anti-Soviet propaganda of Sergei Eisenstein.
A movie is usually analyzed by critics for what it says about its society or environment, what it says about its characters and the issues they embody, and how well it accomplishes its own goals. Such criticism can be analytical, such as that of Mark Kermode, who analyzes a film’s style and its techniques; it can be historical, as in the analysis of a film about the life or work of a particular artist; or it can be psychoanalytical, as in the theory of the unconscious developed by Jacques Lacan.