(this is a corrected version of the post--initially I mistakenly attributed the quote below to Nabokov and then I reversed story and plot in the quote--not a good day!!)
Are we losing the plot?
A plot is a sequence of events with a cause and effect connection. As novelist E.M. Forster noted, saying ‘The king died and then the queen died’ is merely a story; saying ‘The king died and then the queen died of a broken heart’ is a plot. It not only has a causal connection, but also an emotional element, which always makes a tale stronger.
More and more of the movies that are coming out have stories (one thing happens, then another thing happens) but no plot, where whatever hapens is directly or indirectly caused or at least strongly influeneby what went before. You could move the events around and nobody would notice the difference.
They're more like video games--lots of effects and visceral stimulation, not a lot of mental stimulation. Not that there's anything wrong with visceral stimulation but the two are not mutually exclusive. I think films like "The Godfather" have both.
There was an article recently in the Los Angeles Times saying that the audience for intelligent dramas is disappearing, citing the disappointing box office returns for "State of Play." I haven't seen that one, but many of the reviews have suggested it's just not a very good film. If that's true, it's not its intelligence that's the problem.
If you've seen any good new movies that appeal to the head and the heart and the gut, let me know, because I don't really believe the hunger for those has disappeared.
