[jamesrcole]

> I don't like the idea of "understanding" a film. I don't believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art.

I think it depends on the work. Take the tv show The Wire. There is a lot to understand and learn from it. I found doing so really worthwhile (for multiple reasons).

[atoav]

Understanding can add a great layer to the experience of a movie (as you rightly demonstrated), however for many it seems to be a necessity to even consider finding it good. There is a whole class of people whi can't enjoy a film unless it is served with a 100% clear and unambigous explaination.

To me they feel a bit like people who watch a beautiful sunset and get mad that it is not beeing self explainatory. They cannot just see things, they have to understand in order to get satisfaction.

The good old "what wanted the artist tell us" is bullshit. I went to art school and graduated with a MA. The really interesting stuff often happens where the artists themselves cannot tell you what made them do it a certain way. Sometimes the work is more intelligent than the artist and you realize they have no clue what they did when they did it. Tarovsky however certainly knew what he did, but the whole point was precisely that which is hard to grasp.

[wruza]

Oh, you touched a thing that bugs me sometimes. Some of people are so definitive, as in they need instant direct “tell me then” answers (which must fit their current level of understanding) and not explorative questions. I find being in a superposition and waiting for things to [not] happen much more insightful and learn-able than requesting explanations right here right now, as it doesn’t fixate your thinking. I don’t want to bait a flame here, but I came to a conclusion that widespread religion is a consequence of this. People are uncomfortable when things are unexplained and when thought experiments bring more and more hard questions to the table. God may exist or not, and that’s an interesting question, but for them it is not the question, but just a way to clear the table once and forever. (It’s not about all religious people, and I have enough counterexamples, but few of my close links fell to goddidit pit under heavy indoctrination pressure.)

[Ialdaboth]

I believe the "understanding" bit goes hand-in-hand with the fetishization of nerdy intellect by the modern upper-class (especially in the managerial and IT urban elite). Whereas one recurring theme of classical art had to do with the sacred, and the experience of the sacred - something you can feel, but not something you can understand.

[celticmusic]

I still remember the day I got lectured by someone on how I didn't really understand the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Maybe not, but it spoke to me in a way no other anime ever did and it's easily the #1 for me.

I obviously understood SOMETHING about it, even if it was just my own understanding.

[celticmusic]

The Wire felt like real people, in a way that 99.9% of media doesn't.

I've read that some/most of the actors were actual police force at some point. I may be getting the details wrong, but I think that's why it felt so real, because it was real even if the specific situations were fiction.