Does film belong among the great art forms of painting, music,theatre, sculpture, dance, and photography? Formalist thinkers (those guys in the early days of cinema, 1890's to 1920's who were concerned with the actual mechanical and visual apparatus of film ie. celluloid, lens, montage) believed that film was like a canvas, on which the Autuer created the image. They believed film was art if the apparatus could do something different, something no other art form could do. So, if film is art, what does it do differently than 1) theatre, 2) dance, 3) literature or 4) photography? And what was it that film "does" that art does or should do?
Please feel free to comment. I'd also like to hear some examples. Name a film that does something other art forms cannot, but be sure to name the thing it does and why.
