In Stanley Cavell’s essay “Audience, Actor, and Star,” some differences between film and theater are discussed. Cavell stated that theater is obviously performed live while film is taped or recorded. The performers in theater are really present, while in film, the audience does not actually see the performers live. In theater, the performer should avoid committing mistakes since the performance is done live. On the other hand, in film, actors have the advantage of committing mistakes. In theater, the performer is more of a character. Then in film, the performer is more of an actor.
A film star usually portrays almost the same roles among his or her movies. He or she has already created an identity, which the audience expects to see every time they watch a movie that this particular star is in. For example, Brad Pitt is known on having the ‘leading man’ role in most of his films. In Babel, however, he portrayed a role which I think is somehow off his usual role. The role he portrayed in Babel required too much from him than his other movies. Nonetheless, Brad Pitt still went well with his role in Babel.
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According to Alexander Sesonske, films occupy a different space as to the ‘natural space.’ The space that movies occupy is dubbed in Sesonske’s essay as ‘cinema space.’ The film Babel is both visually and audibly good. Its fine cinematography blends well with the audio aspect of the film. The background music comes in harmony with the scenes. And these two aspects, I say, make the viewers ‘feel’ the film.
Since films have this power on time, which, through editing, the past, present, and future in a movie could be drawn together, and the right order (past first, then present, then future) could not be the sequence in the film. The time in film can be played around. In the film Babel, there are actually three stories that actually happen simultaneously. And these three stories are connected to each other. So the filmmaker played with the three stories in the film, as regards to time and progression.
