How video games are regenerating cinema

Video games, often dismissed by cinephiles, have profoundly influenced major filmmakers, reshaping cinematic techniques in framing, image sequencing, and storytelling. Rather than advocating for artistic legitimation of games, the article explores how directors like Gus Van Sant, the Wachowskis, and Brian De Palma have integrated game aesthetics into their work. Van Sant credited playing Tomb Raider with shifting his focus from narrative to following characters in films like Gerry and Elephant. The Wachowskis' Speed Racer (2008) employs rapid camera movements and 360-degree rotations echoing game controls, revealing an archaic quality in even advanced game graphics. De Palma uses first-person perspectives in Snake Eyes (1998) to explore memory and truth, likening game-inspired nonlinear storytelling to archaeology. The article challenges clichés that games are mind-numbing or strive for photorealism, arguing instead that they demand new perceptual skills and create a productive gap between reality and representation. Citing Harun Farocki, it notes that games like military simulators can expose a 'sun without shadow,' highlighting how code constructs visual worlds. László Moholy-Nagy's 1925 concept of new optical performances is invoked to frame gaming as a site of perceptual evolution. Ultimately, the cross-pollination between cinema and video games drives a permanent cycle of deconstruction and regeneration.