Monaco represents his understanding of film in multiple ways. In his book he expresses that film holds a close relation to many other media aspects such as; novels, painting, photography, television and even music.  

Monaco starts off this chapter by explaining the historical significance of poetry, and astronomy and other human creativities have had on the culture.  

Monaco explains that if we were to arrange the arts on a spectrum based on their levels of abstraction then film would cover a broad range of other ideas because of its relation to other art forms mentioned above (photography, painting, music, etc). Film started off as a medium to record other arts but quickly turned into the anomaly that we know as “cinema” today.  

Cinema holds the ability to visually tell you a story and take you on a journey of emotions and experiences. The music used in films influences every watcher’s experience and is timed perfectly to match the story to create a narrative within itself.  

Cinema has the ability to commentate on society with the evolution of genres. Many people look towards film as a way of understanding the world around them. One notable example (personally) is taxi driver, in this film we see how loneliness and isolation can drive society to insane means of being noticed