How many movies feature zero chairs? How many chairs have you taken particular note of? They’re a dressing so common that you (or at least I) never really think about them — much less notice as being absent from whatever we’re watching. Someone who did give it a bit of thought is Tony Zhou, a video essayist whose work we’ve posted several times. After exploring directors and their particular techniques, he goes a bit wider and now brings us the aptly titled In Praise of Chairs. Along with highlighting the odd role this furniture plays in our perception of movies — how we might start to infer emotions on account of their appearance, even on a subconscious level — it also runs through a small history of their turns, from new to old to live-action to animation. (Included with the video, so long as you hit the closed-caption button, is a running list of what’s playing at any given moment.) It’s short, fun, and, unlike many video essays, uses its format properly: as a critical extension of the visual medium.
Watch the video below: