About

Absolute Cinema is a reaction image of film director Martin Scorsese raising his hands captioned with the catchphrase. Online, the black-and-white image has frequently been used to positively comment on dramatic events in sports matches, as well as on films, shows and video games that one considers to be of high quality. In September 2023, the greentext format Kino Is Served, also based on the image, achieved minor virality. The meme is similar to This Is Cinema, another reaction image format based on a photograph of Scorsese.

Origin

On January 2nd, 2020, The New York Times^[1] published an interview with film director Martin Scorsese. In the interview, a black-and-white photograph of Scorsese lifting his hands appears (shown below, left). On December 1st, 2022, X user @YashChillinn^[7] posted a clip from the anime Chainsaw Man next to the image of Scorsese captioned with "Absolute Cinema" (shown below).

Spread

Prior to March 21st, 2023, an unknown user captioned the image "Absolute Cinema," creating a derivative version of This Is Cinema meme (shown below, right). Also on March 21st, X^[2] user aj_larocca created a post using the image.

On March 23rd, 2023, X^[3] user @_lalaxyz made the earliest notable post using the image, reacting to a post about The Shining. The post (shown below, left) received over 410 likes in eight months. On April 16th, X^[4] user @Br32 used the image in a post about NBA player Russell Westbrook that received over 200 reposts and 5,000 likes in seven months (shown below, right).

Throughout 2023, the reaction image maintained significant virality online, being used to react to dramatic sports matches, as well as to films, games and other media one considers great.

Kino Is Served

On September 17th, 2023, X^[5] user @hayasaka_aryan made a post about slice-of-life anime written in the style of a greentext that used the photograph and ended with the line "Kino is served." The post (shown below) received over 470 reposts and 4,900 likes in six weeks.

In the following weeks, the format achieved minor popularity on X. For example, a post about the anime series Goblin Slayer made by user @TopGyaru on October 17th, 2023, accumulated over 750 reposts and 7,400 likes on X^[6] in two weeks.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References