I think it’s important to understand the different views about the nature of screenwriting. When many consider screenwriting an ‘art form’ by itself, others think that screenwriting is an urgent technical practice that filmmakers relies on to make better films. Celebrated screenwriter Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and many other acclaimed works of cinema, says that screenwriting “is not an art form, because screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.”I sort of agree with Schrader’s ‘invitation’ part, but not with the part where he says that screenwriting “is not an art form”, mainly because of the eternal question: what is art?.
If we look at screenwriting, we will see a sophisticated form of expression relies on detailed visual description of events (just like novels), but with harder rules and restrictions. For example, unlike novels, you are not supposed to describe the deep feelings and inner conflicts of your characters using descriptive words, you have to create actions and events and make your characters react to them to reveal how they really feel. I find in that (action-driven) nature of screenplays enough reason to consider them ‘art forms’ too.
Pasolini once said screenplays are “a structure that wants to be another structure” and that caught my attention indeed. I genuinely believe that the story is the origin of any good form of art, and in that sense screenplays can stand still in making an impact even only as written documents with actions and dialogues. In other words, I see the screenplay as a full standing structure that facilities the possibilities of other structures to exist. In his autobiographical novel “The Movies Teller”, Hernan Rivera Letelier, describes a poor young girl, living in Chile with her wheelchair-confined father and four siblings, tries to save up enough money to watch movies at her local cinema then comes back to her poor village and makes a living for her family from telling the story of the movies she watches. She makes huge success despite that her audience are only listening to the story of the film (the concept of the screenplay in that case), without actually watching it. Ironically enough, the novel is currently being adapted by Walter Salles and Rafa Russo to be turned into a movie that will be directed by Lone Scherfig and released in 2023.
Finally, I would always support any opinion that puts screenwriting in the position of creative independency, because this is what writers really need to come up with new memorable ideas. Yes, thinking within the box, can get this screenplay selected or that produced, but thinking freely out of the box unleashes the originality in the screenwriter. That sense of originality can not be mistaken by a real artist who wants to make a memorable film for history.
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