Mi Blog es su Blog: Welcome to This Summer of Film!

Hello, readers! I'm Ben Elliott. (My middle name is Scott, so I guess B.S. Elliott could be my pen name.) Through this blog I intend to update and educate you on the developments in film during this summer.

This blog will be equally shaped for those who see movies as a lighthearted pastime and those who see film as a serious art form. I want to explore more recreational films in a complex way, while exploring complex films in a way that is recreational to read. The "summer blockbuster," spawned by Steven Spielberg's 1975 smash hit Jaws, has continued to become more and more prominent. Deadpool 2, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Ocean's 8, and Incredibles 2 have already taken advantage of those summer seats. (You'll notice that all of these are either a sequel or a re-make, a trend I will explore in the future.) With these timely blockbusters also comes the steady stream of work from more "serious" directors unconcerned with box-office statistics.

While being from and currently living in the United States certainly skews my perspective, I will try my best to be cognizant of film's developments throughout the world. Subtitles are going out of fashion, fast, but to limit one's scope to merely American film is a grave mistake. The history of film is an interwoven pattern of international innovation: William Kennedy Dickson, of Scotland, is considered the true "father of film," inventing the early motion picture camera; Alfred Hitchcock (England), Orson Welles (America), Robert Bresson (France), Sergei Eisenstein (Soviet Union), Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy), and Akira Kurosawa (Japan) are among the most influential directors of all time. The United States is still the largest film industry in the world economically, but countries like China, the United Kingdom, Japan, and India do not lag far behind.

Of course, I cannot keep up with everything. But casting a wide net such as this leads to a better catch, and I encourage you to apply the same philosophy not only in the movies you watch but in the life you live. I look forward to what I will catch, to the movies I will see, and to the readers I'll interact with.

Until next time.