Character Driven Movies

“The main difference between European and Hollywood films is that European films are first of all films of personalities, and the American productions are primarily films about specific situations.”

– Francois Truffaut, “The Films in My Life”

Movies generally focus on people. Often, they focus on a particular person. Movies are stories and a good story needs compelling characters. One thing extraordinary movies usually have in common is that they have characters that we care deeply about. The movie “About Schmidt” wouldn’t be much of a movie without Schmidt! Even in the case of documentaries, the movie usually benefits from having a narrator we can relate to.

Our hero may be a perfectly ordinary person. Perhaps he is someone very much like ourselves, someone that we can relate to. Other times, the protagonist is exceptional in some way. Perhaps, for example, they are hurt, damaged, or angry because of events in their lives.
Characters in movies may also be completely unlike anyone we have ever met. I am thinking of characters like Edward Scissor Hands or like the child who refuses to grow up in the movie “The Tin Drum.”

Rarest of all is the character who reaches out, touches hearts everywhere, and changes the world forever. This is what happened when Charlie Chaplin created his Little Tramp character. I think it is safe to say that there has never been another movie character, before or since, whose way of walking, whose way of tipping his hat, and, indeed, whose entire approach to life, has been so permanently lodged in the hearts and minds of moviegoers.