The application of aesthetics within film, to me, is a prime example of philosophy. It is philosophy at it’s finest, a experiment into what it is that the human mind is attracted to and repulsed by, essentially, what makes the human mind tick. Art is what has separated humanity from the variety of other species that inhabit the Earth, and film encompasses nearly all, if not all, the fields within the world of art. It is music and rhythm, sculpture and fashion, it is art itself. And through art, that is how humanity is to be understood and it’s true face discovered.
Having said this, aesthetics within film are as varied as there are philosophies and periods of art. There is a philosophy behind each style, a reason for why this was placed so and why a specific color is prominent within the film or scene. Nothing is without reason, it is organized chaos, just as human emotion and thought is organized chaos.
Within these styles of organized chaos and distortions of beauty, there is the concept of Ma within East Asian cinematography, a single moment in time which encompasses nothingness and everything. It is rarely used and appreciated by Western audiences, for the thought of a moment of nothing within a film is pointless and without purpose, serving little reason to propel the story and feel of the film. But that is the aesthetic, a single moment in time in which nothing occurs which propels the story or the feel of the film, yet, in truth, it has. These moments without seeming purpose are within the world of film due to the philosophies of Asia, of Buddhism and Shintoism, in specific, Zen Buddhism. It is a moment of escape and peace within world of chaos, a moment of organized chaos in which everything has it’s purpose and said purpose is revealed, a moment of simply being.
Ma, this concept of a moment in time, that is my preferred style of aesthetics within film. A simple elegance where you do not need 120 minutes of sequential action and physical turmoil to deliver beauty to the eyes of a viewer and invoke an emotional response. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahara are two such propellers of this movement who have heavily inspired me, their Studio Ghibli films invading Western film culture with the concept of Ma with mythical and dystopian films that touch upon upheaval and destruction with peaceful moments of nothing, of moments without hate and despair and equally without love or happiness.
There are Western films that touch upon these concepts, the first that come to mind being Equilibrium with Christian Bale and UltraViolet with Milla Jovovich. Within both films there are heavy Eastern influences within the cultures and societies presented, least of which is not the concept of moments of nothingness. Both films are minimalist in the sense of a Zen garden, there is nothing that is not needed, there is purpose behind each movement and each placement that may not be obvious at first, but is after enlightenment has occurred. Dark purple against a background of stark white in UltraViolet, the white following the Eastern belief of white being a color of death and mourning, and in Equilibrium, blood splattered white against a background of lifeless stone grey are examples within the film of the Eastern sense of there being only what is needed, only being said what must be heard with layers and layers of depth.
Aesthetics within film is as varied as the cultures within the world. The concept of it is being rather fitting to be studied in a class of anthropology or philosophy since aesthetics, especially in regards to cinema, is what shows humanity for what it is and how to understand humanity.
