What is Cinema?

Filipino auteur Lav Diaz once said that he constructs his scenes in such a way that the audience will have a conscious effort to see all the things included in the frame, whether it relates to the actors' performance, the technical aspects, the physical objects, or to what a particular scene is trying to say. Doing so entails that the scene has to "take its time", free from any constraint, mostly in the editorial sense. For Diaz, a scene should develop organically. It shouldn't be a wonder then that Diaz serves as the editor of his films as well. One such scene in his latest film, " Ang Panahon ng Halimaw " (2018, Philippines), is when the poet Hugo (played by Piolo Pascual, his second collaboration with the director) types a poem on a typewriter (the poem, we shortly learn, is intended for his wife). Looking at the right side of the frame (the poet has his back to us), we notice the book " Fahrenheit 451 " by Ray Bradbury placed on the table, ...