I just read one of those ubiquitous internet posts, this one about how Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep developed nuanced emotional performances in The Bridges of Madison County.

I know a lot has been written about acting styles, schools of acting, method acting, voice projection, discipline, the differences between stage and screen.

I, who know nothing about anything, said “Hmm…”

I do know that some stage actors could not make the transition to the screen. Many screen actors fall apart on the stage. Broadway is a world of its own, with an audience that includes fanatics.

The demands of each are not intromisively compatible.

We all know, don’t we? about the silent film beauty who, when talkies came in, assaulted the audience with her raucous voice, ending a career and an age.

We all know, don’t we? how for example the screen icon Marlon Brando tried his moodiness on stage, couldn’t remember his lines, and had to have the text posted out of sight around the set.

Whether the movie director does one take or a hundred, the goal is to capture a single moment held on film for endless repeat performances of one way frozen from all others.

A stage performance changes every night. The actor must adjust to the weather, the health and energy of the fellow actors, the size of the audience, the feedback from the fourth wall, the news of the day, the physical process of digestion of the previous meal, and and and…

“It was better last night.”

“Tonight I really nailed it.”

“These matinees really take it out of you.”

Without a camera to do the close up, the stage actor must reach out to the audience to the last row.

Watching a movie of a Shakespeare play, the audience can read the face, the curated subtlety, and says, “I really felt that. Now I understand why…you don’t get that from the stage…”

The audience who goes to both, stage and screen, can adjust.

Of course there are problems. I think of opera performances at the Hollywood Bowl. Technical upgrades have installed screens placed strategically so the audience without binoculars can see what’s going on on stage. Subtitles or supertitles can let them read translations so they know what’s being said or sung. Some people don’t even bother to look at the stage which becomes irrelevant.

All of which just scratches the surface of the changes in art.

The visit to a sculpture garden, where suddenly the statues begin to move and speak, drama, then dance, ballet, then sing, opera.

I’ve written too many times about what makes art art.

But there is an inherent need for art, the unfulfilled emptiness in our lives which craves more than the literal of day to day.

It’s the joy of love beyond sex.

It’s the satisfaction of friendship and community which replaces isolation.

We need more art.