The eye retains the image of each frame long enough to give us the illusion of smooth motion. I doubt they realized the truth of their words. Life is like a movie because, like a movie, life is an illusion of continuity. G-d didn't just create the world once. He re-creates it every split second.
Every second is a separate and distinct creation.
It just looks like a continuous whole. When a craftsman makes an artifact, from the moment of its completion that artifact becomes independent of its creator. Not so the Creation. Even though G-d finished the Creation in seven days, it still needs His support. If for one second G-d would remove his attention from Creation, it would return to nothingness.