The reel thing
Oct. 7th, 2004 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4I do not know enough about films.
I noticed this particularly while on holiday, as my travelling companion frequently tried to refer to films that she assumed I would have seen, and more and more I found myself apologising for being whatever the filmic equivalent of "poorly-read" is. ("Poorly-viewed" makes me think of frosted glass, and anyway, you know what I mean.) But it's something that happens quite often: people allude to films in the confident belief that they are accessing shared cultural reference points, and my only response is an unbecomingly blank look.
I'm also aware that often when I do watch films which everybody else has raved about, I feel as though I'm missing something. Obviously there are differences of taste, but with literature (and, in some genres, music) I feel as though I can make a critical judgement which satisfies me (I'm not particularly concerned whether other people's opinions differ) -- that is, I can say "I feel that I have read/heard and understood this and I am confident that my indifference to it or dislike of it is a matter of personal taste, rather than a sign that I am missing something which is central to appreciating it." (Goodness, that sounds arrogant. I don't mean it as such.)
Now I'm not really asking for recommendations of Wicked Cool Films You Like, because I've probably got enough of those to keep me going for the next 200 years, and unfortunately I'm only likely to live for another 60-odd of those. What I'm asking for is something slightly different: what films do you, O film-viewing people of my readership, regard as central to understanding film as a medium? Or, perhaps, which films are most central to the cultural consciousness of people in the English-speaking Western world[1]? What films would you be horrified to discover that somebody in my cultural context hadn't seen?
[1] I'm specifying this because one of my reasons for asking is that film is an area where, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I feel like an outsider in my own culture. I feel as though there are swathes of cultural referents which I am entirely missing because I'm so lacking in filmic knowledge. For other cultures I'm happier to accept that I will lack a lot of shared reference points.
Yes, everybody's answers are going to differ. I'm not really interested in producing a definitive list; rather just seeing what people suggest. I'm also interested to know reasons for your choices -- a list of films without any explanation will tell me nothing if I haven't seen them, and won't motivate me to see them.
Does this rambly and multifaceted question make any sense?
I noticed this particularly while on holiday, as my travelling companion frequently tried to refer to films that she assumed I would have seen, and more and more I found myself apologising for being whatever the filmic equivalent of "poorly-read" is. ("Poorly-viewed" makes me think of frosted glass, and anyway, you know what I mean.) But it's something that happens quite often: people allude to films in the confident belief that they are accessing shared cultural reference points, and my only response is an unbecomingly blank look.
I'm also aware that often when I do watch films which everybody else has raved about, I feel as though I'm missing something. Obviously there are differences of taste, but with literature (and, in some genres, music) I feel as though I can make a critical judgement which satisfies me (I'm not particularly concerned whether other people's opinions differ) -- that is, I can say "I feel that I have read/heard and understood this and I am confident that my indifference to it or dislike of it is a matter of personal taste, rather than a sign that I am missing something which is central to appreciating it." (Goodness, that sounds arrogant. I don't mean it as such.)
Now I'm not really asking for recommendations of Wicked Cool Films You Like, because I've probably got enough of those to keep me going for the next 200 years, and unfortunately I'm only likely to live for another 60-odd of those. What I'm asking for is something slightly different: what films do you, O film-viewing people of my readership, regard as central to understanding film as a medium? Or, perhaps, which films are most central to the cultural consciousness of people in the English-speaking Western world[1]? What films would you be horrified to discover that somebody in my cultural context hadn't seen?
[1] I'm specifying this because one of my reasons for asking is that film is an area where, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I feel like an outsider in my own culture. I feel as though there are swathes of cultural referents which I am entirely missing because I'm so lacking in filmic knowledge. For other cultures I'm happier to accept that I will lack a lot of shared reference points.
Yes, everybody's answers are going to differ. I'm not really interested in producing a definitive list; rather just seeing what people suggest. I'm also interested to know reasons for your choices -- a list of films without any explanation will tell me nothing if I haven't seen them, and won't motivate me to see them.
Does this rambly and multifaceted question make any sense?
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-07 10:09 am (UTC)That's cool. (It's one approach, anyway, and one I grok.)
Something by Kubrick
Haven't seen any yet, though I have the video of A Clockwork Orange. Is that a bad place to start? Or another not-for-small-screen one?
Something by Woody Allen
The only Woody Allen film I've seen is Antz, and that Doesn't Count. :)
Fight Club [...] and Being John Malkovich
Oooh, yes. Yes yes yes. Seen both of them twice, thought they were both fantastic, though obviously in very different ways. Both surprised me enormously by being even better than I remembered the second time round, and it's not often that happens.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-07 10:27 am (UTC)Oooh, yes. Yes yes yes. Seen both of them twice, thought they were both fantastic, though obviously in very different ways.
Thanks, that datapoint about overlapping tastes gives me a lot more confidence in recommending other things to you.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-07 10:32 am (UTC)I was going to say, possibly maybe, if you as a practising martial artist can stand to see showy martial arts scenes stylised most of the way to ballet, Hero, which is still out in cinemas here, would be worth your seeing. In that it does some stunningly gorgeous visual things, some really nice things at the level of multiple renditions of the same story and how they echo and interact, and it has a coherent and cogent philosophical point to make - though I suspect much more so if one speaks Mandarin rather than having to rely on subtitles. It's also something that will be completely bloody wasted on video.
Clockwork Orange is certainly good, and having it to hand is a plus for this sort of discussion. I'd not recopmmend it to you so highly as the other two because it really is Very Nasty Indeed, contentwise, on levels I suspect might get to you and be depressing.