Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>
> There's an amazing scene in the excellent movie (sorry, saying "film"
> always sounds kinda pretentious) Occupation:
I'll have to look up the old issue of Critical Inquiry that had an excellent article on this general question. If I remember correctly the author thought "movies" was the correct term, but he also pointed out that "film" emphasized the material medium -- I don't remember his analysis of "cinema" or whether he distinguished between "movies" and "motion pictures."
I agree "film" sounds pretentious: one senses the writer rather self-consciously and even nervously avoiding the term "movies."
Carrol