Barbara and I have been going to The World Cimema Club in The Villages since I met her. We saw “In the Heat of the Night” on our third date in January of 2025. We don’t go every week but most weeks.
We’ve seen a few dozen films since then, most of them are nothing I would have found on my own. I think Jack Nicholson’s’ “Five Easy Pieces” is the only film other than “In the Heat of the Night” I’ve seen before.
We saw a film called Capernaum a few months ago. I call what we see movies, but the club calls them films. Somewhere along the way, I learned that “movie” and “film” point to two different ways of seeing the same thing.
When I googled the two, I found this. A movie is the surface — the motion, the color, the story carrying you from one moment to the next. A film is the deeper layer, the intention behind the motion, the quiet choices that shape how the story settles into you. One asks you to watch; the other asks you to notice. A movie fills two hours, but a film invites you into a conversation with yourself long after the screen goes dark.
If you read the promotional material for Capernaum, you’ll see phrases like “one of the most powerful films of the last decade” and “raw, emotional, and unflinching.” The advertising doesn’t oversell it.
The film tells the story of Zain, a 12-year-old boy living in poverty in Beirut who sues his parents for bringing him into a life of neglect. While the story is fictional, it was inspired by real children the filmmaker, Nadine Labaki, met while researching life in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. It’s hard to believe people live like this, but they do.
Whenever I watch a movie that feels a bit overpowering, my thoughts drift back to Capernaum. I’ve seen some good films since then, but this one stays with me. Capernaum challenges us to look beyond our own routines and ask whether we are truly paying attention to the people around us.
If you’re curious about how people live in circumstances vastly different from ours, give it a shot. You might find it hard to believe. Pollyanna me certainly did. Just don’t expect a typical movie. Expect a film. And don’t be surprised if you end up having a conversation with yourself long after the screen goes dark.