My experience is that while film is a medium in which to tell a story, the key part is still the story: you need a good story. Then you can worry about telling it well (good director, good actors, good music).
So, i'm not much of a film-head, but i'm a sucker for a good movie, especially if it's funny. Conversely, i tend to frown on movies that are just "idea" movies, much as i frown on "idea" books. "Lost In Translation", for example, was a movie that had a wonderful idea (lovelorn Americans in Tokyo suffering from culture shock meet), but was short on plot and thus was about 45 minutes too long.
So, i don't know what to recommend for "film as a medium". I think i'll go with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (by the same writer as "Being John Malkovich", which someone else recommended and i concur). As for the cultural stuff, i really don't know if the stuff on this side of the pond would be the same as on the other. I think "The Blues Brothers" is a key movie for too many reasons, but primarily because it's funny as hell and it's a fantastic musical, but while the blues spent quite some time growing up in England, i'm not sure how relevant they are anymore over there.
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Date: 2004-10-07 11:40 am (UTC)So, i'm not much of a film-head, but i'm a sucker for a good movie, especially if it's funny. Conversely, i tend to frown on movies that are just "idea" movies, much as i frown on "idea" books. "Lost In Translation", for example, was a movie that had a wonderful idea (lovelorn Americans in Tokyo suffering from culture shock meet), but was short on plot and thus was about 45 minutes too long.
So, i don't know what to recommend for "film as a medium". I think i'll go with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (by the same writer as "Being John Malkovich", which someone else recommended and i concur). As for the cultural stuff, i really don't know if the stuff on this side of the pond would be the same as on the other. I think "The Blues Brothers" is a key movie for too many reasons, but primarily because it's funny as hell and it's a fantastic musical, but while the blues spent quite some time growing up in England, i'm not sure how relevant they are anymore over there.