'Film' versus 'Movie'

[danny la rouge]

Oi! I'm only 26 and I say pictures! And so does my girlfriend and she's only 22!

Must be a northern thing?

I assume you mean Southern thing?

 

[Cid]

Film mostly... Sometimes use 'pictures' or 'movies' but only in the trendy post-ironic sense typical of the middle classes... <winces at self>

 

[Orang Utan]

Since when have Guardian readers been highbrow? Their critics certainly aren't.
I use both words.

 

[Reno]

Since when have Guardian readers been highbrow? Their critics certainly aren't.

They've always been a bit of a disgrace really.

 

[Orang Utan]

They've always been a bit of a disgrace really.

I've hated Bradshaw, ever since his utterly boneheaded review of Starship Troopers. And Sean French always makes me want to watch all the films he sneers at.

 

[Reno]

I've hated Bradshaw, ever since his utterly boneheaded review of Starship Troopers. And Sean French always makes me want to watch all the films he sneers at.

...and Derek Malcolm before them was an idiot too.

 

[scifisam]

Both. Though, to me, any moving picture can be a film, whereas there's some arty stuff that would sound wrong referred to as a movie.

 

[JTG]

I watch 'films', never 'movies'

However, it is called 'going to the pictures' and that is why I voted as I did

 

[Orang Utan]

...and Derek Malcolm before them was an idiot too.

He didn't trust films that he judged to be 'undemanding'.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Since when have Guardian readers been highbrow? Their critics certainly aren't.
I use both words.

Relatively speaking they are...

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I'm as likely to say 'film', as I am, 'lift'.

 

[Orang Utan]

Relatively speaking they are...

Relatively speaking, they're middlebrow

 

[electric.avenue]

I use both - seems to depend on who I'm talking to and what they use.

Also, tend not to use either much anyway, as I just use the name of the film/movie, like "Did you see Memoirs of a Geisha", or whatever.

I think "movie" somehow sounds a bit babyish and American, and "film" could mean a film that you put in a non-digital cameras, a film of soap, thin films in physics, etc. I don't think there is actually a good word for it - how about cinema, or something?

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

But one could use 'cinema' in a broad sense, e.g. "My favourite cinema is Russian cinema". But I couldn't say "My favourite cinema is The Truman Show". IMO.

 

[subversplat]

Not to mention when you get into renting films from the video shop!

 

[MightyAphrodite]

movies...and flick is a common word.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I forgot to add flick... probably because I find it extremely annoying, much more so than movie!!!

 

[MightyAphrodite]

I forgot to add flick... probably because I find it extremely annoying, much more so than movie!!!

it is annoying, i agree, but the term 'chick flick' is said LOADS tbf.

 

[JTG]

Relatively speaking, they're middlebrow

relative to what?

It's all relative you see.

 

[extra dry]

Film = British or UK english

Movie = American english
I have to teach both words or phrases 'are you going to see the movie/Film'?and the students get confused

Film is on TV and a Movie is at the cinema

 

[nino_savatte]

I opted for "Pictures" though I much prefer the word "Talkies".

 

[CalmerChameleon]

I always say film - I used to get really annoyed by a friend (before I killed him) who would, instead of saying, 'go to see a film/to the cinema' would say 'let's catch a movie'

 

[danny la rouge]

Film = British or UK english

Movie = American english

That's an anglocentric dichotomy. As I've already said, working class Scots have been saying "movie" as long as I can remember.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I've never used 'movies' for anything.

But then I'm still into stillies, next thing you know they will be coming up with talkies and soundies.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Film technically these aren't movies anyways they are talkies...

 

[Melinda]

Mark Lawson had a discussion about this fairly recently on Front Row. It came about after the rumours that the McCanns were going to have a movie made about the disappearance of Maddie and there was a media outcry.

Their family spokesman said it was going to be a film- a documentary and not a 'movie.'
The gist of his argument was that a movie was something frivolous and light, and a film was something altogther more serious.

Personally, Ive always said film. 'Movie' sounds funny in my mouth. I can write that Ive been to see a movie, but I couldnt say it out loud

 

[Reno]

Film technically these aren't movies anyways they are talkies...

movies = moving pictures

They are movies whether they are silents or talkies.

 

[N_igma]

and i sometimes still refer to it as going to 'the pictures'...........

I'm relatively young and pretty much always say that.

 

[rekil]

Fillum.

 

[Reno]

Fillum.

Unless someone is actually Irish I find that rather twee.