"A film is a petrified fountain of thought"

This quote by Jean Cocteau talks to the power of movie as a medium for conveying ideas and emotions. By comparing a movie to a scared water fountain, Cocteau suggests that a film is a static, unchanging representation of idea. This indicates that a film is an irreversible record of the concepts and feelings that the filmmaker wished to convey. It likewise suggests that a movie can be seen and analyzed in different ways by different individuals, just as a scared fountain can be seen from various angles and perspectives. In this method, a movie can be viewed as an ageless source of motivation and consideration. By comparing a movie to a petrified water fountain, Cocteau is highlighting the importance of movie as a medium for conveying ideas and emotions, and the capacity for a film to be translated in different methods by various people.