Introduction

Listen, this may merely address a resoundingly moot point, but I have to say there really is something magical about the movies. Film is both art and craft and owes a large debt to each, though it adheres to a very specific media in order to create a series of stratified works.

Break down any film you’ve ever seen in your entire life. In the history of the medium, filmmakers have constructed literally thousands of unique, and not so unique, motion pictures based on a scant two elements. As simple as they are few, the elements are picture and sound.

This mere fact cements how in my mind, at least, good films, bad films, comedies, dramas, and everything in between are simply amazing. It’s as if the great film teacher of the masses has passed down to her students the near-menial task: create a work with image and sound.

In a good film, I am quite literally sucked up into the screen even as I maintain my outsider’s perspective. I become fully, wholly engorged by the experience. I hear the popcorn munching and excited whispers of the audience, but am simply unable to redraw myself until the credits roll. Like a horse, my eyes are boxed and guarded, seeing only what passes in front of me.

Both critics and filmmakers have a unique sense of duty to keep an eye on what is truly a very precious and fragile medium. It is the job of a film critic to properly herald and promote artists’ achievements. The role of critic is that of public servant. After all, someone needs to applaud the brave new works of picture and sound and oust those whose content has been assembled haphazardly and without care.

Daniel Cerny

It is with great pride that I present to you the Winter 2003 issue of Latent Image. This is our 18th issue in our nearly 14 year history as a student film journal. Our staff, six of whom wrote articles this issue, has worked extraordinarily hard, producing a year’s worth of articles in only a semester’s time.

This issue has a variety of articles for your enjoyment and contemplation. The articles range from an examination of the Protestant Work Ethic in Spartacus [“Something like a rich widow”], to the influence of Annie Hall in romantic comedies [Memoirs of a Hopeless Romantic]; from an analysis of current Asian cinema [In the Mood for Love], to a look at the Polanski classic Chinatown [Water and Power]; from a study of Hitchcock [Hitchcock’s Leading Men], to a discussion on auteurism [An Argument Against Auteurism]; and a counterpoint duo of articles [Which Came First? & I Am Not a Sheep] that argue the quality of the American movie going public.

I hope you enjoy all the articles, and I urge you to submit your own articles for our next issue. Thank you.

Bradley Cheyne

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