what takes a priority: plot or character?

original post
it all depends.

for myself, i look for both. i'm at a phase right now where i'm interested in character pieces where either it is a strong character interaction (a la hoop dreams or any wes anderson film) or an introspection of character (a la der himmel über berlin/les ailes du désir/wings of desire). plot films tend to bore me even though they can be fun to watch. but i'm trying to synthesize the two worlds.

to me, a plot is merely a means of tying events or moments together. most well-made films have a plot in some form or another. the difference is how easily depicherable or discernable the structure is. that's another way of thinking of it... a structure stringing together vertical (image) and depth (essence) components horizontally (time). the character is part of both the vertical (image) and horizontal (essence). what is extremely attractive is when there is a lot of depth to the character (as well as everything else in the film).

but this is my opinion... what do you think about all of this?