Let's start with an example. Look at a picture of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Then compare that to walking into the chapel and looking up. Even if you've never done it, you can imagine the difference. One is just a poor summary of the other, because they are two different things. Michelangelo did not intend his painting of the chapel to end up on a postcard. The only thing that can do his work justice is to see it the way it was meant to be seen. For that matter, a photograph of any painting, even actual size, isn't the same as the painting itself. Even a perfect representation won't show you what the original can about the application of the paint, the impact in space, the framing-again, two different things, the real and the poor summary. And the best summary, the absolute most perfect reproduction of one medium in another medium, remains a poor summary.
And yet, when it comes to movies, how often do we care? Movies are images meant to be projected on a big screen, and
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