film-geek neepery
Feb. 7th, 2005 03:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksI have a very strange pattern of involvement with most media: I am well versed in the obscure, and have no acquaintance whatever with the ordinary. If ninety percent of the population of the planet has never heard of something, I have probably read/heard/watched it, and I tend to have never heard of things that many people seem to take for granted. This is not due to living under a rock, since I have never actually done so except in the case of television (a childhood without it has bred a lifetime of ignoring it), so much as it is due to extremely directed and obsessive interests that lead me to research and experience a wide-ranging set of totally obscure things.
Most of the time, I enjoy this a great deal, or I wouldn't do it. However, I do on occasion get the feeling that I am missing something by not having heard of the things outside my research areas, and, as far as movies go, this feeling has gotten pretty pronounced.
Because I would call myself a film geek. I have a shelf full of Peter Greenaway and Sally Potter and North African experimental animation and German expressionism, and I go to a lot of movies, and I love movies dearly and dissect them all over the place whether anyone wants to hear it or not.
However, I have no familiarity whatever with the movies that wind up on those lists of classic movies, and I tend to have no acquaintance with the favorite movies of my friends, or of critics I trust, either.
I have never seen a movie by Hitchcock or by Orson Welles. I have seen one Scorsese; it was 'Summer of Sam'. I have seen one Kubrick; it was 'Eyes Wide Shut' (which was great, but not, I am told, representative). I have seen one Spike Lee, and it was 'Get On the Bus'. I have seen one Bergman, and it was his film of the stage version of 'The Magic Flute'. I have seen no Fellini, no Truffaut or Godard, and no Antonioni. I did see a movie by Fritz Lang, but it was 'Things to Come', not 'Metropolis'.
I have never seen 'Casablanca', 'Gone With the Wind', any winner of the Best Picture Oscar for the past decade except 'American Beauty', or anything I could accurately identify as film noir.
I have seen a lot of Coen Brothers, a lot of random Kurosawa, Cocteau, and Jacques Tati, and every single MGM musical ever made.
Are you starting to get the idea of how the obscurity thing works here?
I'd like to do something about it, really. The difficulty with those lists of classic movies, however, is that, frankly, both those lists and the Academy are occasionally totally nutso off their rockers (*cough*IreadthescriptofGladiator*cough*), and I'd like to get more detailed opinions than just some titles on lists, so that I've got some idea of why people think a film is worth tracking down and viewing before I track it down and view it.
So. What movies do you all think are classic? What movies should I absolutely, positively not miss, as a film geek and as a person who would like to understand the pop-culture store of references and allusions that is sure to be lurking out there? And, more importantly, why are they unmissable?
Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Most of the time, I enjoy this a great deal, or I wouldn't do it. However, I do on occasion get the feeling that I am missing something by not having heard of the things outside my research areas, and, as far as movies go, this feeling has gotten pretty pronounced.
Because I would call myself a film geek. I have a shelf full of Peter Greenaway and Sally Potter and North African experimental animation and German expressionism, and I go to a lot of movies, and I love movies dearly and dissect them all over the place whether anyone wants to hear it or not.
However, I have no familiarity whatever with the movies that wind up on those lists of classic movies, and I tend to have no acquaintance with the favorite movies of my friends, or of critics I trust, either.
I have never seen a movie by Hitchcock or by Orson Welles. I have seen one Scorsese; it was 'Summer of Sam'. I have seen one Kubrick; it was 'Eyes Wide Shut' (which was great, but not, I am told, representative). I have seen one Spike Lee, and it was 'Get On the Bus'. I have seen one Bergman, and it was his film of the stage version of 'The Magic Flute'. I have seen no Fellini, no Truffaut or Godard, and no Antonioni. I did see a movie by Fritz Lang, but it was 'Things to Come', not 'Metropolis'.
I have never seen 'Casablanca', 'Gone With the Wind', any winner of the Best Picture Oscar for the past decade except 'American Beauty', or anything I could accurately identify as film noir.
I have seen a lot of Coen Brothers, a lot of random Kurosawa, Cocteau, and Jacques Tati, and every single MGM musical ever made.
Are you starting to get the idea of how the obscurity thing works here?
I'd like to do something about it, really. The difficulty with those lists of classic movies, however, is that, frankly, both those lists and the Academy are occasionally totally nutso off their rockers (*cough*IreadthescriptofGladiator*cough*), and I'd like to get more detailed opinions than just some titles on lists, so that I've got some idea of why people think a film is worth tracking down and viewing before I track it down and view it.
So. What movies do you all think are classic? What movies should I absolutely, positively not miss, as a film geek and as a person who would like to understand the pop-culture store of references and allusions that is sure to be lurking out there? And, more importantly, why are they unmissable?
Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
