Xixax Film Forum

So?

Alot of Magnolias i guess...

I havent been in the game too long, but it was Requiem for a Dream

For me, it was Boogie Nights. No question.

It was the first time that I sat up and saw a film as a work of art. The first time a film became more than telling a story, but actually made you care about the lives of the people onscreen.

When I saw it the first time, I was like, "Oh, so THIS is what movies can be!"

Quote from: XixaxFor me, it was Boogie Nights. No question.

It was the first time that I sat up and saw a film as a work of art. The first time a film became more than telling a story, but actually made you care about the lives of the people onscreen.

When I saw it the first time, I was like, "Oh, so THIS is what movies can be!"

Same here.

it was a mix of Boogie Nights and L. A. Confidential, with a splash of Psycho.

I've been interested in movies since the beginning of high school, but the one that really did it was Magnolia. I'm sure that will always be my favorite movie, just because of the personal impact it had on me.

Honey I Shrunk The Kids. I think the first movie i ever saw in a theater. It had a HUGE impact on me. For a week, I wouldnt step on the floor or in my backyard, for fear of killing tiny people walking around.

the shawshank redemption

I dug lots of movies when I was a kid, but I'd say the film that made me decide that I wanted to be a filmmaker was A Clockwork Orange.  I remember a friend of mine stayed the night (we were young, this wasn't a cream your pants kind of thing) and he wanted to rent a "weird" movie so we rented this because we had heard it was "strange".  We watched it and I immediately watched it the next day and all week until I had to return it and find out what else this Kubrick guy had made.

Pink Floyd the Wall and 2 tabs of Lisedricacid Dyethelmide (sp?)

When I saw American Beauty. I'd seen loads of films as a kid but this was the first one that showed me the emotional impact a film can have.

Sorry to be unoriginal but the movie that changed my life was Boogie Nights.  I had heard good things about it (in movie reviews) but never expected it to be what it was.  I was about 15 and had seen just about all the new releases so I gave it a try.  Well the rest, as they say, is history.  It was after this movie that I knew how I wanted to make movies, up until then I just wanted to make them.  Anyway, I watched it two more times before I renturned it and have been a cinephile and a P.T. Anderson lover (in a non-creamy pants sorta way) ever since.

Fight Club. Not so much the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it the first time, then saw it again and developed an appreciation for the excellent craftsmanship of the film. To think I almost didn't see it cause I wasn't 18. But I wasn't gonna let that stop me.

Die Hard got me to just love movies when I was 13, even if action movies only at the time. I still love the movie and is the only movie where I have every line, camera angle and shot already in my head. I had to have seen it over 150 times easily.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came for me when I was 15 to really enjoy older movies since I was still entertainment driven only in my watching movies but my defending of the movie to other people really got me interested in other movies.

2001: A Space Odyssey overwhelmed me completely and drew me to consider movies at a higher degree than just entertainment. After that, my outlook changed so much that the previous two movies were completely off my radar screen though I've come back to admire both greatly. This movie really changed my life.

Walkabout made me believe in myself that I could actually make a living of making movies since I was in belief that it was for people a lot more talented to me. But the simple visual poetry in it very much went to my liking and understanding that it made me believe I could do it and understand how to do it.

~rougerum

ive been a huge fan of cinema since i can remember, but i became a "real" film buff in 97 with:

lost highway
u-turn
jackie brown
the blackout
fargo
crash
boogie nights

Quote from: The Gold TrumpetDie Hard got me to just love movies when I was 13, even if action movies only at the time. I still love the movie and is the only movie where I have every line, camera angle and shot already in my head. I had to have seen it over 150 times easily.

I have a feminist English professor who told me that the Die Hard series marked the 90's period of the male chauvanist response to feminism.

I've wanted to make movies for as long as I can remember, ever since 'Star Wars' I guess, but the point where I stopped wanting to 'make movies' and become a filmmaker was when I saw 'Pulp Fiction' when I was fourteen...I saw it three times in a row and it changed everything.

When I was really young it was probably the Tim Burton movies (Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Nightmare B4 Christmas) that I really loved and connected it with and I still love today. There were many other movies I liked but he was probably my first favorite filmmaker...along with Spielberg (E.T. and Hook), I was like 7 or 8 around that time. I still love their films today, that's the magical part. Before that even, I loved movies a lot. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Ghostbusters...god, I loved the Ghostbusters movies...I still love them today too...all of this stuff is still so great. I know it's pretty mainstream but I'm not ashamed, I think it's cool.

Then I just got older and more and more addicted. The passion for film grew and grew, then came the discovery of filmmaking and I realize it's the PERFECT job for me....that I must be a filmmaker. I must have been around 12 or 13 and it just happened. Just started getting more and more interested and obsessed. That's all I remember. I hit 13 and I am seeing all kinds of movies, trying to find cool films and filmmakers to worship. Now, I'm 16 and my obsession is stronger than ever. It's all a blur how it happened or what order it happened in. PTA and all the other gods of filmmaking are all in there somewhere of course...all kinds of stuff. I love it.

I've wanted to be a filmmaker since I was eight, but the first movie that made me realize how much work and thought goes into a movie was The Graduate.

I have always been surrounded by movies. I remember my mother taking me to see the Disney movies (Bambi, Mary Poppins, etc.). My sister worked at a drive in theater and would get us in for free, and is where I first saw Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, etc. My mother would also always video tape (with a top loading VCR) and constantly play movies of the 40's and 50's and so on; musicals, film noir, classics, and of course Hitchcock (Psycho being my introduction). I also saw all the 80's and 90's films with my cousin (R.I.P.). So I can't really pin point just one, but I remember being affected in school when we were studying the Elephant Man play and got to see the film. Thank God for Mr. Erickson. GoodFellas also gave me a career change. It made me see how sight, sound and editing can create masterful storytelling and, like Ghostboy, not just make movies (producer), but be a filmmaker (director).

I know no one is a fan but 'Chasing Amy' did it for me.  It was funny and emotional at the same time.  It was made for 250k, and pretty much included a guy making a film with his friends.

JB,
That may be, who knows. But Die Hard series will then join the Fellini movies in that category of "combating feminism". My film professor, a woman, will not acknowledge Fellini as a good filmmaker at all because of his subjects but will give much credit to Bergman, who, in one of his best films according to her (she only seen a few by him), Wild Strawberries, it has a subject that is very much about male chauvanism but also shows that in its bad light. The thing is, Bergman to this day has a very male chauvanism as he claims he had no reason nor obligation to parent his children at all. He said that the women in their lives did very well with that. He also had a lover in one his actresses. P.S. I have no respect for my film professor, a fucking idiot when it comes to movies.

*Still shakes his head at anyone claiming to be an Ignmar Bergam without seeing Persona or Cries and Whispers*

~rougerum

let's see.. i was 13 when i first saw Network in '96, and i'd seen pulp fiction and all that but this was the coolest thing ever. the whole underground liberation thing blew my mind.. that same year i got heavy into Woody Allen like Love and Death and Crimes and Misdemeanors. those were the first things i really felt attached to.

then Breaking the muhfuckin Waves the next year sealed the deal.

and now u know the rest of the story..

nice revealing thread

Krush Groove anyone?

Quote from: CockAsianKrush Groove anyone?

amen

I watched JFK with my dad and was completely blown away. Damn I really don't remember how old I was, maybe freshman year in high school. Anyway, it was an amazing film for me to watch, so bold and innovative. I immediately went out and rented all of Oliver Stone's films after that, and he's been my favorite filmmaker since.

magnolia, without a doubt...it really connected with me

I remember watching "Meet the Feebles" and it just blew my mind as to what a filmmaker could do with a low, low budget and a stupid idea.  Stupid in a good way, though, as I love that film.  I saw that on video when I was 15, and then a few months later I saw "Kids" when it first came out and that blew my mind as well.  I definitley thank the Cult Video section at Hollywood Video (which they don't have anymore) for introducing me to such classics as Hard Rock Zombies, Motel Hell, and Death Race 2000.

Lost Highway-
I saw it when it first came out (I was pretty young). And I was blown away by it. Really showed me that film is an ART for the first time.

Citizen Kane-
Cliche but it's cinematography just got me going.

Dog Star Man-
The first experimental film I ever saw. Completely changed the way I thought about what films should be (i.e made me a narrative snob :P)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-
Got me into horror movies and got me to take them seriously.

Come and See-
The first movie to make me cry in a theatre.

I was mostly influence by my godfather, who has been in film and theater forever. Also, my high school girlfriend got me to see a lot good ones.

The Godfather
Pulp Fiction
Usual Suspects
Fargo

then later

Magonolia
Pi
American Beauty

There's too many.

But, since the novel is my first love, I like a movie that reads like a book.

are most of the people on this board aspiring filmmakers?
I went to school for creative writing, movies are just a hobby for me, but I do hope to write a screenplay someday.

Wow, I'm no old man, but I'm starting to feel like one... I was a kid when I saw Star Wars, and ever since I wanted to make movies, either that or crush men's throats with a glance and pinching motion.

Needless to say I grew up with Raiders, Goonies, Back to the Future as my summer fare, I am a product of pop culture and the Speilberg-Lucas machine, and though I give them complete credit for getting me my first super8 film camera and then graduating to a beta-camcorder, once I got to theater/film school the film that changed how I looked at what film could be was RESERVOIR DOGS.

It was the perfect match for me, dialogue driven with characters that were somehow real, and an urgency to it. I loved it so much when I began my theater company it was the first film I adapted to the stage.

After that the movies that molded me as a filmmaker were:

Nashville (controlled chaos)
North by Northwest (style and subtle sexiness)
The Player (That opening shot!)
Pulp Fiction (A hipsters paradise, before everyone was trying to be "hip")
Sydney (oooppppsss. I mean Hard Eight)
House of Games (The BEST of Mamet)
Boogie Nights (natch)

and then if you pop over to my wesbite you will see my first feature film cut into a web series, and you won;t be able to deny that my favorite film has colored me to every end:

Magnolia

Michael

Robert Rodriguez for sho - he iz tha man
Desperado/El Mariachi/From Dusk Till Dawn , must be like 96/97/98 or so..? Don't remember , also Pulp a little bit and of course the nights of the Boogie..

i always loved movies.  i always loved when my parents would take my brother and i to movie theaters and watch movies like GHOSTERBUSTERS 2 and DUCK TALES: THE MOVIE.  but when i was 9 years old my father bought a camcorder.  i used it to make a short film about turtles (mario red turtles) destroying NYC.  i started becoming a film geek when i was 14 years old and first saw PULP FICTION.  i knew i wanted to be filmmaker.  i knew i could be a filmmaker when i first saw CLERKS.  ever since, i wrote so many terrible screenplays and made a lot of vcr to vcr tapes.  and now almost 10 years later, i'm @ the point of making my first full legnth film.  1994 was definately the year that changed my life.

"Good Will Hunting," not so much for the movie itself, but it was the fact that it was written by these two guys who weren't much older than I was. Up until that point, I just thought of writers and directors as these geniuses who sit in the dark and brood all day long.

i started (strangly enough) with Edward Scissorhands. Burton was the first director i really looked into. Before that id always loved films but never really studied them.
then went onto Heavenly Creatures (i dont care what you ppl say, Peter Jackson is pretty damn cool although LOTR isnt the best)
Reservoir Dogs had a major influence;
and then finally a clockwork orange which i saw for the first time a few years ago totally blew my mind and i started to get really serious about movies. It was like everything else id seen before clockwork was.. i dunno what it was, just no good compared to what Kubrick did with that film.
Jesus im starting to sound religious.

Edward Scissorhands made such a big impact on me (I think I was eleven when it came out) that I wore nothing but black clothing until my last year of high school, in an attempt to emulate Tim Burton (a Newsweek article at the time of Scissorhands' release mentioned that it was all he wore). People still get confused when I wear any colors these days.

I really hope Big Fish is good, after the disappointment of Planet Of The Apes (the only film of his I haven't bought on DVD).

I like Tim Burton a lot. Planet of the Apes, yeah I don't know. Remakes are tricky. I remember hearing him on IFC saying something like "I wouldn't know a good script if it came up and slapped me on the face."

Vertigo
AMC had a Hitchcock special a few years back(before they sold out) and i caught it with Frenzy after it.

that got the gears really turning....then last spring semester i took a film class and really got inspired by Kane and Psycho by looking at them from a different point of view

a few days ago i started working on my first screenplay...i've been working the story out of my head since March or April of last year, but i finally started trying to write it out...............about 8 pages so far!

Quote from: bigideas
a few days ago i started working on my first screenplay...i've been working the story out of my head since March or April of last year, but i finally started trying to write it out...............about 8 pages so far!

Congratulations! I recently finished writing my first screenplay and it was an exhilirating experience. Good luck to you.

wow. i'm surprised how alot of you guys truly recognize the greatness of boogie nights. it sucks that when i first saw it [snuck in the theater when i was fifteen], i didn't really --- "catch" it. i simply saw it as a movie about a porno star, nothing more. it was only until it came out on video that i saw it again and again and then on like the third of fourth time of watching it, i started to really notice all the small little trivial things the characters say and actually take notice of the photography...i slowly started to become amazed by it. and i still am. and it's still my favourite movie of all time [not what i'd call the best movie ever, mind you]. i own the screenplay, the poster, the special edition dvd..

man. that movie rocks.

anyways, the movie that made me a cinephile was pulp fiction. saw it when i was fourteen in 1995/seventh grade a little before the oscars. saw it four times at the cinema. and yeah, that movie did it. after that i started watching as many movies as possible, besides the usual garbage. i know it sounds absurd, but i think i was the only person i knew that watched black and white movies, besides grown-ups. the fact that a movie is black and white doesn't even register in my brain, while other kids complained about it. it's a real shame how most people won't bother watching older films.

and just now i am barely beginning to really touch the foreign sector since i just joined netflix and they got everything my video store lacks - kurosawa, truffaut, fellini, etc.

Quote from: snaporazi know it sounds absurd, but i think i was the only person i knew that watched black and white movies, besides grown-ups. the fact that a movie is black and white doesn't even register in my brain, while other kids complained about it. it's a real shame how most people won't bother watching older films.

thats not absurd. i know exactly what youre talking about. same thing goes with foreign films.

wait. you know what...i was thirteen in 1995....but i was twelve in early 1995.

holy shit. i was twelve.

goddamn.

Quote from: snaporazanyways, the movie that made me a cinephile was pulp fiction.

What does the title "Pulp Fiction" mean? Where did it come from?

Quote from: Duck Sauce

Quote from: snaporazanyways, the movie that made me a cinephile was pulp fiction.

What does the title "Pulp Fiction" mean? Where did it come from?

do you not know or are you quizzing me?

well...pulp fiction is basically another term for dime novels and such...fictional stories printed on pulp-type paper. detective/noir type of stuff. people read them way back when.

Quote from: snaporazit was only until it came out on video that i saw it again and again and then on like the third of fourth time of watching it, i started to really notice all the small little trivial things the characters say and actually take notice of the photography...

So what you're trying to tell us here is that at first you just wacked off to it, and then on the third/fourth time you stayed to see how the story ends.

Well, the first movie I ever saw is also the first thing I remember of my life...ever...it's a powerful image: E.T. almost dying on the side of a river...

Right there and then I was forever lost on movies...In childhood, a lot of movies made me wanna be an actor, mainly, I don't know why...:
Disney's The Jungle Book
The Neverending Story
Batman

Then I saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and for the first time knew that there was a director, and that's what I wante to be.

Scent of a Woman, Schindler's List, but mainly Pulp Fiction and Ed Wood changed everything for me. I guess Pulp is the big turning point...

After that, a lot of films hace come along, specially from Kubrik and Scorsese, that have made me just crave to be a filmmaker...

"Sling Blade" and "Good Will Hunting" did it for me.  I mean I've always loved movies and I've written very visual short stories since I was a child.  I knew I wanted to be a creative entity but wasn't sure exactly how.  For some reason that I couldn't explain to anyone else, those two movies just connected with me on a creative level and filmmaking realized me.

Quote from: Newtron

Quote from: snaporazit was only until it came out on video that i saw it again and again and then on like the third of fourth time of watching it, i started to really notice all the small little trivial things the characters say and actually take notice of the photography...

So what you're trying to tell us here is that at first you just wacked off to it, and then on the third/fourth time you stayed to see how the story ends.

yeah. it was only after several viewings of sitting in my own joy juice that i realized it was true. right. and dramatic.

want a fresca?

Sometime around my freshman year of high school I saw "Silence of the Lambs" for the first time.  That being the first film I saw that could really be described as intense, dramatic (meaning not relying on spectacle or comedy), and just plain good that I could appreciate and understand really got me into movies.

I saw Solaris by myself and I really enjoyed the experience. Don't remember ever doing it before, but I knew if I brought along certain friends they wouldn't be diggin it and would ruin it for me. I don't know though, when I see a really good movie I want to share the exp. with an amigo. I actually see a lot of films w/ my mommy, cause she's totally into it. We saw adaptation together and loved it. we still talk about it through emails and stuff.

ahh fuckballs, I meant to post this in the other thread. my bad.

Quote from: cbrad4dfuckballs

Crazy hype!

My dad introduced me to a lot of his favorite movies when i was real young (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Animal House, etc.) and my mom preferred me to watch Disney movies starring Dean Jones rather than Transformers or GI Joe.  But when I was 16, I saw a special on Francois Truffaut on one of the movie channels, where they showed The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim, and Shoot the Piano Player back to back.  After that, I became partially obsessed with french art films and the new wave.  

later on, during my last year of high school I got back into watching Hong Kong Cinema after I had to do a report for one of my classes for senior thesis paper I was required to do.  What better way to get a passing grade than compare Melville's Le Samourai with John Woo's The Killer?

Don't know whether I can claim to be a cinephile exactly, but the first movie I have a powerful impression of (talking cinema visits) is Sleeping Beauty, and the first time I wrote about film it was Time Bandits/Brazil/Baron Munchausen. The first time I wrote seriously about film it was Derek Jarman, and that came from seeing Caravaggio.

The first movie I became obsessive about was Jurassis Park. To me it had everything. It was frightening and funny and a thriller and a romance and all this stuff. And it had dinosaurs in it, too. I guess that would have come out here in late 1993. There are only two theatre experiences that I can recall every moment of, the second of which is Moulin Rouge. I remember when I jumped and when I laughed and what it was like when I left, and where I sat, and the line to get in, I can remember everything about the time I saw Jurassic Park. I can give you a running commentary. That I read both the novel based on the film and the novel upon which the novel was based, purchased the Jurassic Park companion, bought the toys, started a club which dedicated free time at school to drawing pictures, and made up a song about the raptors in the kitchen...all that goes without saying.

I still wanted to be an actor until I was in grade seven, but it was Jurassic Park, way back in grade two, that got me hooked on movies. The thing that got me hooked to filmmaking wasn't so much a movie, but an experience. Myself and five friends won a trip to Paris to take part in the International Children's Summit at Disneyland, and a director/producer from the Disney Channel followed us around and made a doco about it. And he would give us the camera and tell us to go off and shoot a whole heap of stuff. And shoot stuff we did. And I've been hooked on the feeling ever since.

coppola's the conversation
kubrick's the shining
saw them when i was 10 -- changed everything

there are no specific movies. my mom raised me on good cinema from a young age. she'd always rent these obscure movies at the video store and we'd sit and watch them (at age 7 I was the only one I knew that loved movies in black and white or with subtitles (my mom loved the actress Gong Li when I was little, she was always frequently in our VCR)). We loved camp cinema like Mommie Dearest or Cry-Baby (personal favorites of mine to this day). Then I wanted to conquer my fear of horror movies and the first things I watched were Nightmare on Elm St, the Omen, and the Shining. shining was my favorite (of course...). I keep thinking to myself that I was never seriously into film until 3 years ago, but I think back further and that's not true because I've always loved movies and wanted to do something with movies. I've always made little things on my video camera since I was little and was fairly well versed in cinema. so, no, there was no one movie that made me want to become a filmmaker, I've always had a passion to tell a story, and film is the best way I know how.

At a friend's house... Late at night... At a extremely young age... I cleverly stole TOTAL RECALL. My first rated R movie.. That was the one.

2nd big impact was From Dusk Till Dawn when it first came out

chris

Unoriginality strikes again!  Boogie Nights was the film that truly made me become a movie buff.  That and American Beauty.

American Beauty I guess.  I was so into it, and when it was over my sister and brother in law go "THAT was the best movie of the year?!  It sucked!"  and I knew from that moment on that I loved movies more than my family THE END

Reservoir Dogs made me wanna be a director. Boogie Nights (w/ commentary) taught me how to love film. Magnolia changed everything and made me wanna dedicate my entire life to film. Taxi Driver (on re-watch) showed me how I wanna make films. 8 1/2 made me wanna watch EVERY film. Walkabout showed me just how perfect a movie can be.

Props to Kubrick, The Maysles Brothers, and Godard, as well.

first black and white picture i saw was Double Indemnity.  

first movie i remember watching in the theater? i was 7 years old and my dad asks me if i want to see a movie at the theater called Top Gun.  

the first movie that showed me how grand a movie could be was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

the first movie that made me want to be a part of the filmmaking process was probably Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

the movie that made me a cinephile was The Shawshank Redemption.

Quote from: punchdrunk23Unoriginality strikes again!  Boogie Nights was the film that truly made me become a movie buff.  That and American Beauty.

that and your pic of PSH , combined make you the most un original poster in the history of this site, you have cheapened all of us sir , tonight we all hang our heads in shame

I became a cinephile while watching Striptease. ( The scene where Burt is all olied up!)  :wink:

that is a great avatar sigur ros. oh i wish...

Haha, brilliant.

Quote from: SantaClauseWasA BlackManthat and your pic of PSH , combined make you the most un original poster in the history of this site, you have cheapened all of us sir , tonight we all hang our heads in shame

Man, you crack me up.  

What's even funnier is when the rest of you get all bent out of shape over his comments.  

Hey, why don't you treat him like your older brother: he'll quit picking on you if you just ignore him.  Fighting only makes it worse, and you get more noogies.

Quote from: Phil Marlowethat is a great avatar sigur ros. oh i wish...

Yes sigur once again you have come up with a great avatar

Quote from: Pawbloe

Quote from: SantaClauseWasA BlackManthat and your pic of PSH , combined make you the most un original poster in the history of this site, you have cheapened all of us sir , tonight we all hang our heads in shame

Man, you crack me up.  

What's even funnier is when the rest of you get all bent out of shape over his comments.  

Hey, why don't you treat him like your older brother: he'll quit picking on you if you just ignore him.  Fighting only makes it worse, and you get more noogies.

the weird thing is , im really a dancer

I've pinpointed the origins of my cinephilia as Husbands and Wives (1991, age 15), Safe (1995, age 20), and My Life to Live (first seen by me in 1995, age 20).

But... I do recall a childhood summer (age 11? 12? 13?) when I asked a neighbor to tape some movies off HBO for me (we didn't have cable), and I watched them all summer long: The Purple Rose of Cairo, Raising Arizona, and Hope and Glory. All of which I still think of as excellent films, and remembering the myriad occasions over that summer on which I watched and re-watched this triple feature... yes, that may be the actual origin of my cinephilia. I've loved Woody Allen for as long as I can remember, though...  probably even before I saw any of his films, I just thought he was the most unique, interesting, intelligent, oddly funny personality.

AREN'T WE ALL

I knew it was gonna be tha bomb!

"The Eyepatch Trilogy"

1.) Escape From New York
2.) Captain Ron
3.) Escape From LA

Greatest first post ever?

Quote from: tremoloslothGreatest first post ever?

i agree, that was fucking great a captain ron refernce right out the box this man may have potential

good avatar too.

Hmm...this is going to be difficult.  I became interested in cinema more because I started filming stuff with the video camera my dad bought when I was 8 rather than a particular film.  But here are some films that did do something for me:

Pather Panchali
Bicycle Thief
Derzu Uzala

I don't know if they made me a cinephile, but these are some films I saw early on that showed me how beautiful a film can be.

The Elephant Man
Pulp Fiction
Underground

I don't remember in what order i saw them but I remember it was one summer when I watched films all the time. These ones thaught me how beautiful, emotional and utterly cool film can be.
Today they are still among my favourites.

What can I say? I live to please.

It's incredibly cliche to say this around here - but the films of PTA really transformed me into a cinephile. Because after that I got more and more into Altman, and then Scorsese, and then Italian neo-realism, and then surrealism, and then silent films, and the vicious cycle went on and on..
-Cinephile

Taxi Driver. Ever since my stepdad introduced me to this gem, film has been so different for me.

Taxi Driver was the first Scorsese film that just blew me away.. then I saw Mean Streets since it preceded TD anyway, and then the rest of Scorsese's films in order.. Scorsese or not - it still bugs me that "The Color of Money" seems to be perceived as the superior film over "The Hustler." I hope I'm not crazy but thats what it seems like. I also think it was an injustice for Newman to get the oscar for the Scorsese sequel too. Anyway, Scorsese just hit me at the infamous climactic shootout sequence.
Listen you fuckers... you screwheads...

I'd go w/ Reservoir Dogs.  I first saw it early in highschool and needed to know everything about it and how it was made and how anything like this is possible, which I think is what this thread is basically asking: 'what made you want to make movies.'

It was the first time I saw a movie that looked like something someone made, instead of this picture perfect machine that most popcorn cinema is.

I read and reread the script, memorizing nearly all of the dialogue and devoured anything I found about Tarantino.  It made me think (how naive I was) that making a film was possible, at least on a much more stripped down level than I was used to, though the quality could be just as good...

I'd seen Clerks that same year as well and it also gave me the impression that people (kids, students, amateurs) were creating something that was worth watching (which was an otherworldly idea in my youth).

And although its nearly ten years later (and I'm already intent on following that road) I was lucky enough to see a recent screening of Melvin Goes To Dinner and, afterwards, talk to and hear the writer/lead actor Michael Blieden speak about being a student and working out of school through different odd jobs and later writing, acting, or working with his play until someone chanced to see it and wanted to bring it to film.  

Although I've heard these types of stories a dozen times, this one connected in a different way, and might possibly have had the biggest influence.  

Good times...

aw

Well, this is gonna be a long answer, so for those with no patience feel free to skip it. But I think it's a good question and deserves a real answer.

Deconstructing Harry changed my life.

I'd always watched movies but never gave much thought to the people behind the camera. When I got into college I hated it and decided to drop out for a semester so I had a lot of free times on my hands. I decided to spend all my time watching movies, and thats when I realized I had never seen a Woody Allen movie. I just knew him by reputation, the pervert who slept with his daughter. So I grabbed Deconstructing Harry off the shelf. I fucking loved the movie. It was the first time I completely identified with the lead character, the neurosis, the anger, I loved all his jokes.

I watched it 3 times back to back and on the third time as I watched the credits right before the picture started it read, "Written & Directed by Woody Allen". I remember so clearly hitting pause and staring at that for like 5 minutes in silence. Thats when I realized why they call his films "Woody Allen movies".

As a kid I'd always wanted to be a writer but never had much hope because I was intimidated of writing novels. But when I saw written by woody allen , it was like everything made sense. Written by Woody Allen, hmmmmmmm, thats it!!!! I can do this! Of course, I can write a movie (or so I thought).

Then I thought about "Directed by Woody Allen", and I began thinking, what exactly does a director do? I only knew the really famous ones, Speilberg, Hitchcock , Scorsese, Tarantino, Spike Lee, etc... . So I started doing some research and buying all of these books. Then I went back to college (studying business) and I hated it. I spent all my time studying up on directors and the history of film. It was such a wonderful time in my life because I was learning about and discovering all these classics. I'd watch 3 or 4 movies a day, discovering Fellini, Bergman, Goddard, etc... . I'll never forget the time I watched the sun come up as I finished watching "Double Indemnity", which became one of my favorite movies of all time.

my love of movies gave me something to pursue and for the first time in my life I knew what I wanted.I quit studying business and moved to the US to study film. I was always a lousy student, like C grades always. So I went to Boston and studied my ass off to transfer into NYU where I'm currently studying both Film and Writing (not only screenwriting, but plays and short stories). So here I am, studying what I love, making shorts, and enjoying every minute of it.

Had it not been for "Deconstructing Harry", I don't know where I'd be today.

That was beautiful, man...!

As for me, I think I had cinephelia ingrained in me as I was growing up - got it all from my dad. Some of my first memories are watching Hitchcock movies with my dad. Hitchcock and Shakespeare adaptations.

Quote from: EL__SCORCHOWell, this is gonna be a long answer, so for those with no patience feel free to skip it. But I think it's a good question and deserves a real answer.

Deconstructing Harry changed my life.

I'd always watched movies but never gave much thought to the people behind the camera. When I got into college I hated it and decided to drop out for a semester so I had a lot of free times on my hands. I decided to spend all my time watching movies, and thats when I realized I had never seen a Woody Allen movie. I just knew him by reputation, the pervert who slept with his daughter. So I grabbed Deconstructing Harry off the shelf. I fucking loved the movie. It was the first time I completely identified with the lead character, the neurosis, the anger, I loved all his jokes.

I watched it 3 times back to back and on the third time as I watched the credits right before the picture started it read, "Written & Directed by Woody Allen". I remember so clearly hitting pause and staring at that for like 5 minutes in silence. Thats when I realized why they call his films "Woody Allen movies".

As a kid I'd always wanted to be a writer but never had much hope because I was intimidated of writing novels. But when I saw written by woody allen , it was like everything made sense. Written by Woody Allen, hmmmmmmm, thats it!!!! I can do this! Of course, I can write a movie (or so I thought).

Then I thought about "Directed by Woody Allen", and I began thinking, what exactly does a director do? I only knew the really famous ones, Speilberg, Hitchcock , Scorsese, Tarantino, Spike Lee, etc... . So I started doing some research and buying all of these books. Then I went back to college (studying business) and I hated it. I spent all my time studying up on directors and the history of film. It was such a wonderful time in my life because I was learning about and discovering all these classics. I'd watch 3 or 4 movies a day, discovering Fellini, Bergman, Goddard, etc... . I'll never forget the time I watched the sun come up as I finished watching "Double Indemnity", which became one of my favorite movies of all time.

my love of movies gave me something to pursue and for the first time in my life I knew what I wanted.I quit studying business and moved to the US to study film. I was always a lousy student, like C grades always. So I went to Boston and studied my ass off to transfer into NYU where I'm currently studying both Film and Writing (not only screenwriting, but plays and short stories). So here I am, studying what I love, making shorts, and enjoying every minute of it.

Had it not been for "Deconstructing Harry", I don't know where I'd be today.

That's fucking awesome!! Cheers.

yeah, i am currently going through my "discovering the classics" period and loving every minute of it.

A Clockwork Orange.

My dad suggested I see a Kubrick film. I picked out that one. :)

rushmore

Memento, saw it in the theater and knew I had just seen a cool fucking movie.

Lucinda Bryte's coolness made me a cinephile

Royal Tenebaums.  

That movie fucked me in the brains.  I was like "I ... love ... this ... movie"  Not sure why I continue to try to make movies when gold like that is being made.

as unoriginal as it gets...Magnolia also jumpstarted my love into film.  Before I watched movies, but didn't look at them with such an artistic love.  It changed everything.  Then I went back saw Boogie Nights, Hard Eight(Sydney), and I was obsessed.

I was just realizing how important the movie Fargo was to me. I used to look at the cover EVERY SINGLE TIME I was at the video store and beg my mom to rent it. It scared the fucking hell out of me, I have no idea why. Just the image of neverending snow with the dead body in the middle of it all...it was like a nightmare, it was horrible, it really haunted me. See, I was one of those kids that would make a b line for the r-rated movies (especially the horror section) everytime I went into the video store only to get dragged back to the rated pg movies and walk out pissy and bitchy but satisfied. All that has ended now.

Anyway, not surprisingly, when I finally did see Fargo...it disturbed the hell out of me. Seriously, that part where he shoots the very young looking girl...one of the witnesses of the policeman shooting...that seriously fucked me up bad. I'd say I've watched that movie 6-7 times and I'm still not completely comfortable with it. I've grown to love it but it took awhile...it still disturbs me a little.

i've just always loved it.  it hit me really young.  i would always stay up with my mom and watch alot of capra and hitchcock (she had a thing for james stewart, but she also showed me their non-stewart films), i think she also showed my bringing up baby and penny serenade.....and then i just immersed myself from then on.  i don't think i can point out a specific film though.  although, and i don't know if this counts, vertigo is and will remain (most likely) my all time favorite film.

You start off being introduced to the magic and energy of cinema by Lucas and Spielberg.

-- "Truck? What Truck?"
-- "You're gonna need a bigger boat"
-- "That's no moon. It's a space station."
-- E.T. lifting all of the bicycles over the police barricade as John Williams' music swells

Then, when you're in high school, you catch a cable showing of a little film called "Blood Simple," and it becomes yours. Few others know about it, so you kind of treasure it and cherish the fact that this decidedly non-mainstream film is your admission into a different world of film lovers.

Then you go to college and get shown "Citizen Kane" in a film class and realize that it was all done brilliantly so very long ago.

Then, over a dozen or so years, in fits and starts, you become more of a cinephile. Oh, you're still rushing out to see Con-Air and Pirates of the Caribbean every once in a while. But you're more interested in finding the gems of the past -- Wages of Fear, Vertigo, The Hustler, The Third Man, Il Posto, Seven Samauri -- and seeking out the fabulous work being produced (if not always appreciated) in the modern era -- Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Seven, Traffic, Three Kings, The Shawshank Redemption...

I guess that's how I am slowly but hopefully surely earning my cinephile wings...

"Rain Man"  :oops:

ET....first one I saw.

Quote from: Vile5"Rain Man"  :oops:

At last getting the special edition DVD treatment is the 1986 Oscar winner for Best Picture, Rain Main, which will retail for $19.95.

If it's a transfer of the laserdisc, then it will have Levinson commentary and a deleted scene.

You ever see a movie and just get blown away by it again, even though you've already seen it?

Scream jumpstarted my love for horror movies. Then I became addicted to everything.

A Clockwork Orange was a big one as well as Taxi Driver. I think I beame an official cinephile in 1999. There's about twenty flims from that year that I just shit myself over.

Requiem for a Dream really changed me. I was already a cinephile at that point but I can't not mention it.

Quote from: nixRequiem for a Dream really changed me. I was already a cinephile at that point but I can't not mention it.

Completely agree. Powerful movie.

The movie that really made me get into movies was The Shining, because I was about 13 and it scared me to death!  But it wasn't a bad scary, it made me realize how powerful movies can be.  How they really effect an audience, whether to make them laugh or scream.  Great movie.

pi.....
it was suggested for me from someone when the vhs of it was released..
i always liked the part about when the starts talking about staring at then sun and eyes and sh*t ..cool film.....his commenntary tracks are informative also.....

:( .aronofsky please make a film ..QUICK!!!!!!!!!

I grew up in the 80s so as a kid I loved all the really bad movies, but I never really followed film until high school.  Because I'm so original and unique (you can stop detecting sarcasm now), it was probably Pulp Fiction that first made me excited about film in the sense that it was something new that i really liked and at the time i was discovering all these great old movies anyway...  i think my interest in film has grown a lot in the past few years because of the quality of at least SOME of what's come out...

I grew up seeing The Godfather, Papillon, Star Wars, etc. at the theaters when they came out. They left an impression on me even today.

But after getting into David Lynch's Blue Velvet, I was hooked.

akira,

i never see myself making any animation but that's the one that really got me wanting to tell stories.  

i'd have to say after that, the moment i realized that you could make movies out of the system and for little (relative) money were when i saw reservior dogs and bottle rocket.  other movies like pulp fiction, malchovich,  minus man and so on and so on... have inspired me just as much, but sneaking into the theatre at the age of 14 (R-rated is different up here in canada, it's a lot like your NC-17, only worse because you have to be 18 to attend) to see these two films made me want to go out and do it.

-sl-

I think it may have been Scream 2, but not because it was good.  It's just that it was the first R-rated movie I snuck into and I just got a little addicted to sneaking into R-rated movies (because I was 11).  So I ended up going to the theater more often and watching more movies, which started my love for movies but I wasn't watching anything that necessarily made me a cinephile.  But at this point I was beginning to seriously look at films, and cinema just clicked for me.  It just fit.

A lot of people don't trust critics, but the first thing I figured was that they must know what they're talking about (when you take in a majority opinion, like through Rotten Tomatoes), so I watched the best reviewed movies.  I just hunted down the best and watched those.  Because of this, I was watching great movies and my love for movies just grew from there.  I quickly knew that I wanted to make movies.  And so here we are.

Time Bandits.  I was 3.  No joke.

It's hard to nail down anything after that.  Growing up, I had always been drawn to films that weren't necessarily appropriate for or even interesting to my age group.  I invited my friends to come over and watch 2001 when I was 6.  I saw Escape From New York, Apocalypse Now, Amadeus and The Shining all by the time I was 8.  I tried watching Swimming to Cambodia when I was 12 until my mom made me turn it off.  I sat through 8 1/2 when I was 13 or so (I didn't get it at the time).  I went to see Grand Canyon at my local library when I was 14.  I was into the blockbusters of the 80s and 90s on top of all this but... seriously, how many kids do you know that actually know who the hell Spalding Gray was?

"The Shawshank Redemption" ---- I agree.

BUT the first time I watched "Punch Drunk Love", I realized that a movie could be a work of art.

pulp fiction.  that was the first time I realized what a director does.
then Jackie Chan's "my stunts", in which he taught the basics of fighting for camera as well as stunts and tricks for camera.  I then went out and shot this (http://pages.emerson.edu/students/peter_lee/kungfu2.wmv).

Probably Blue Velvet.  I was in college when it came out, but up to that point I still thought of films in terms of their stars, not their directors.  BV was the first film I remember seeing where I was aware that this was all the "vision" of one person, and the actors were just there to help him put that vision on the screen.  Also, it was probably the most "cult" film I'd seen up to that point, and I was completely taken with the idea that a film could be unrealistic, but yet not of a "fantastic" genre I'd seen before, such as sci-fi or a Disney film.  And of course, the look of the film fascinated me, with the way it used the cliches of beauty to show extreme ugliness.  

It's still a big favorite, too  

2LB

now that i am ACTUALLY in the thread:

i don't know what movie turned me into a cinephile, but i remember watching a documentary about the making of close encounters when i was very young and getting totally fucking excited seeing all of the cameras and watching them shoot, etc.

watching those little elvis mitchel/pta interview excerpts on ptanderson.com, listening to the boogie nights commentary, and smoking lots of weed

Quote from: Ultrahipwatching those little elvis mitchel/pta interview excerpts on ptanderson.com, listening to the boogie nights commentary, and smoking lots of weed

i hear ya on the commentary, that was the first one i ever heard.

-sl-

Quote from: ewardnow that i am ACTUALLY in the thread:

i don't know what movie turned me into a cinephile, but i remember watching a documentary about the making of close encounters when i was very young and getting totally fucking excited seeing all of the cameras and watching them shoot, etc.

what do you mean by "actually?"
i just read through this whole thread and i remember you mentioning Vertigo as your favorite film because it is mine as well.

Quote from: bigideaswhat do you mean by "actually?"

http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=170779#170779

It's like, circular, OMG.

Quote from: bigideas

Quote from: ewardnow that i am ACTUALLY in the thread:

i don't know what movie turned me into a cinephile, but i remember watching a documentary about the making of close encounters when i was very young and getting totally fucking excited seeing all of the cameras and watching them shoot, etc.

what do you mean by "actually?"
i just read through this whole thread and i remember you mentioning Vertigo as your favorite film because it is mine as well.

I forgot about that old post, it was from almost a year and a half ago.  and ono pointed out what "actually" meant, silly mistake on my part.  but yea, vertigo was and probably still is and probably will remain my favorite film, the most influential to me.  i mentioned that documentary i saw though, because that was probably the first time i realized that what was going on behind camera was just as cool as what was going on in the movie itself.  i was very young.  and i said the "i don't know what movie turned me into a cinephile" thing, i guess, to instantly show that my post was just slightly off-point.  again, i had forgotten about my previous post here.

One night my friend and I rented Clerks and A Clockwork Orange.  This showed me cinema as punk rock and cinema as exacting detailed art.  I got a good lesson in the spectrum of filmmaking.  Clerks had more of an impact cause it showed me that any motherfucker could make a movie and in this case a good movie.  I had previously not been exposed to that ideal.  That was a good night.

this answer may be kinda answered in this thread, but not necesarily directly.  

when did you first get into foreign movies?  

how old were you and how/why?

i know some of you incorporated this into your answer already, but for those that didnt.

I feel like I've answered this before, but maybe not. I remember being about 17 and hearing about guys like Kurosawa and Fellini and Bergman and the big films that go with them (so I heard): Seven Samurai, 8 1/2, and The Seventh Seal. I rented all three, and it was just an introduction at the time. The Seventh Seal is still one of my favorites.

And how old are you now?  Do you feel you understoof them first time around?  For me, I didn't really get Fellini first time out (15) but appreciated it cause i knew i was suppose to, and loved the visuals.

I'm 21, and the only things I probably didn't understand were maybe cultural things? I don't remember. I probably thought Fellini was alright and Kurosawa too long. Understanding wasn't hard.

A lot of the ideas in La Dolce Vita were too abstract for me at 15.  They kinda still hard.  That's a dense movie, and I mean that in a good way.  

For Fellini, La Strada is probably the best "starter" movie for obvious reasons.    

Anyways, at 15 I watched La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2...A couple Truffaut...and Rashomon.  I liked em all, but only now do I love them.  I got into them because I watched something about Scorsese and how he much he loved Foreign Cinema (or something along those lines.)  Then I found out how Tarantino--my idol at the time--was inspired by the French New Wave.  Ironically, I didn't rent any Godard.

future JimmyGator threads:

-how old were you when you first became orson welles
-how old were you when you first were elected president
-how old were you when you first landed on the moon
-yes, BUT HOW OLD WERE YOU????

:saywhat:

Quote from: Pubrickfuture JimmyGator threads:

-how old were you when you first became orson welles
-how old were you when you first were elected president
-how old were you when you first landed on the moon
-yes, BUT HOW OLD WERE YOU????

You forgot,

-how old were you when you started liking fruit? how/why?

...how old were you when you first posed a question just so you could answer it yourself?

I didn't ask the question so I could answer it myself, but it seems like no one wants to answer and just criticize me for asking a question.  I was just trying to start conversation.  

It didn't work though.

Ok ok, fair enough...



When I was 16 or 17 I read stuff Tarantino had said about Godard.  Me and my friend rented Breathless, fell in love with that...saw Band of Outsiders, bought that.  Watched some Kurosawa...admired it.  But I wasn't even close to being "into" foreign films.  Theres still so many I need/want to see.  Now that I'm at school I have the chance to be exposed to a lot of them.


Although thats none of this turned me into a cinephile...the answer to that question, I still don't know.

Quote from: JimmyGatorcriticize me for asking a question.

the joke is u always ask the same question.

how old were you when you first started asking the same question?

ah, i see now.  i forgot i made another thread similiar to this one (you mean the one about writing screenplays?).  i thought u were making fun of me just based on this thread alone, which would have been unfair.  

fair enough.  i guess in retrospect it is kinda wierd--i never really noticed that i did that but i guess it's kinda true.  i've been thinking a lot lately that i started doing things too late--started watching foreign movies too late, started writing too late.   i guess it subconciously affects what threads i start.

I don't think you should worry about getting into it too late.  Just realize that it will take you a certain amount of time of being immersed in cinema before you get to where ever it is you want to be at.

Don't waste time regretting not getting into it earlier.  Age makes little difference in most cases anyway.  A 25-year-old who was into movies since age 10 is not a better (and often worse) "cinephile" than a 35-year-old who was into movies since age 20.  Writers who start young don't really have a history of being better than writers who start late, if say they've both been writing for 15 years.

Even if what you want to do is direct.  Many directors make their debuts after age 40.  Producers aren't more apt to give a job to a 25 or 30 year old than a 40 year old.

But yeah, regretting that is a total waste of time.  Just focus on, and more importantly, ENJOY all that you have to learn and see still.  I think that attitude will get you tons further.

If you start out late, just remind yourself that your magnum opus isn't Alone In The Dark, and that should ease any doubts you may have about yourself.

For me it was Taxi Driver.

I saw it my freshman year in college. For a kid growing up pretty much on films like the original Star Wars Trilogy and Back to the Future, Taxi Driver, like going to college, totally changed my perspective. I had never realized the potential of this new world until I followed the Taxi Driver trail into other Scorsese works, which lead to countless other filmmakers and films.

I envy some of the younger members that had a slightly earlier start than I, but I completely agree with what matt35mm said previously in that its about the enjoyment. It feels like you can never get to a point where there isn't something new to see or learn...and that is a very good thing.

I've loved movies since birth, but I guess my '237' namesake, The Shining, is what got me into cinephilia. Not necessarily the movie itself, but it got me interested in Kubrick, and from there, well, that's history. ;)

Quote from: Derek237 on January 09, 2006, 09:38:10 PM
I've loved movies since birth, but I guess my '237' namesake, The Shining, is what got me into cinephilia.

that's interesting, cos the room 237 scene is what got me into necrophelia.  :ponder:

fucking dead people....now that's comedy

what you wrote.. not so much.

My brother recorded the Shining when I was around 8, and I watched it about 20 times over the Summer. Later that year, I saw Full Metal Jacket and was just astounded. Then I set out to see every Kubrick film. I also remember seeing the first 10 minutes of 2001 when I was really young and I was completely enthralled. I kept seeing bits and pieces here and there until I watched it all when I was around 12.

I saw Raising Arizona and the Monty Python films when I was about 10 and I thought they were the greatest things I've ever seen.

First foreign film I saw was Man Bites Dog. It was on channel 4 late one night, and I started watching. I was about 11/12 and I thought it was incredibly cool. I boasted about having watched it to my friends at school the next day.

Others include Die Hard/Back to the Future. I was 'sick' from school one day, and my mum was watching the Seventh Seal. That kept me entertained for a good 25 minutes.

it was really the tv in my bedroom and the vcr and hbo. that was it. watched 'em, taped 'em, watched 'em, watched 'em, taped 'em, etc. i guess one might say i became more "serious" during later days, but one mightn't say the focused desire for watching movies that defines a cinephile  began any later than my days of being utterly fascinated by hbo. and i mean utterly fascinated, like it was opening up my ideas about what movies were, who i was, what other places might be like, how important clocks are, what's good, what's fun, what's bad, what's fun. you know. hbo

these are movies i remember being very into during my hbo days:

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F3MP4hkS.jpg&hash=a0425ea6d2d401f784a0750f606fd1c53cf56942)
idk, it interested me. i knew anne rice from interview with the vampire, and being a multiplex hound since my youth i was a fan of rosie o'donnell from the flintstones, now and then, a league of their own, harriet the spy, and dan aykroyd was familiar to me as like "comedy person obviously," but somehow all this packaged together, at this sex island or whatever, made me wonder what the world was like and why things happen. i think there's something with butter and i think there's s&m chain stuff, i can't remember. this movie didn't give me boners or make me a sex addict. this movie made me wonder about all the different types of ways people might exist.
have i seen this movie as an adult: no, i'm afraid to

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FdfzHmpq.png&hash=ca34c601c504f1e459f1f2de6ede80130692cb7b)
see that's what i be admitting, all my ideas about what it means to be creative came from hbo. i didn't read movie books or want to be spielberg when i was 10. i wanted to watch red rock west, being familiar with nic cage but not dennis hopper, because i thought this was stuff they didn't talk about in entertainment weekly or in school, i thought it was a perspective on life that wasn't everyday familiar to me, and i could feel it, i liked it, and i wondered how such things were possible.
have i seen this movie as an adult: yes, including once at the new bev with john dahl in person, on a double with kill me again. john dahl is legit -- the last seduction, rounders, joy ride (j.j. abrams screenplay), those are movies

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FRrBanMs.jpg&hash=d1ceeeb410cb425958df58be3049c60f2c8617ad)
the way her trial went, that gripped me, the way she was so sneaky and clever in a social way, and everyone was impressed. i continued to think the world was bigger than where i lived. and matthew lillard was obsessed with culture in a way that made him for me something like a role model.
have i seen this movie as an adult: no i don't think so, that's odd. fucking john waters, of course i would watch it

next, shows from my personal golden age of tv:

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FuJVAJnL.jpg&hash=b22829df6b9518cdfe7fe4413d00e8ca35052bf0)
duh
seen it as an adult: own seasons 1-3 on dvd

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FCYI1xKQ.jpg&hash=e94210649dc999016c7ab8cb6198c6f277a25185)
he was some normal guy with normal problems and he lived in a city and i kept thinking about how there's all this world out there. i'm basically what your parents would fear you'd become if you watched hbo. if your parents forced you to watch hbo less, you can call them now, or text or email or you decide, thank your parents for not letting you watch too much hbo, which distorted my world vision and channeled my emotions into all these layers of personal fantasy.
seen it as an adult: nah and i chill on that

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fmf3Njjv.jpg&hash=e6f4c98e8ec7207da7f5663fdef5fd13bc8e9c95)
they talked about things that i didn't hear anyone else talk about it, and it was all kinda sickly weird and i didn't feel uncomfortable but i didn't feel comfortable. i don't remember liking this show, but i remember being absorbed by it.
seen it as an adult: nah and i chill on that

unrelated to hbo but i'm mentioning:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fd00dPfm.jpg&hash=78343f86313ee6297bbe1af5bf430c1b7a3436c1)
i'd been to universal studios and did things there, and hitchcock had this special area that made him more special than anyone else, because other areas weren't described to me as places dedicated to other people. i can't fucking remember universal studios but i know they had other things, yet i was pretty sure this hitchcock guy was the one who figured everything out. that's not even why i liked psycho, i liked psycho because of psycho, but hitchcock's name was the first director name that meant something to me, and i was into psycho in that way where like if someone had a question about psycho, if they had to write a paper about psycho for example, they'd ask me the question, kinda thing.
seen it as an adult: think i last saw it on a double with spellbound at the aero, maybe five years back. i've also seen psycho ii (richard franklin, respek) rather recently, and if i don't still own psycho iii on dvd the trade-in was my bad

The Princess Bride taught me to love movies. Evil Dead 2 made me really think about the process of filmmaking for the first time. Magnolia showed me how deeply you can connect with a movie on a personal level. 8 1/2 proved to me that cinema is the one true art form that eclipses all others. John McTiernan's remake of Rollerball made me want slide an icepick into my brain and wiggle it around.

xoxo:

Quote from: polkablues on March 06, 2015, 01:24:09 PM
The Princess Bride taught me to love movies. Evil Dead 2 made me really think about the process of filmmaking for the first time. Magnolia showed me how deeply you can connect with a movie on a personal level. 8 1/2 proved to me that cinema is the one true art form that eclipses all others. John McTiernan's remake of Rollerball made me want slide an icepick into my brain and wiggle it around.

as an adult i think the princess bride is stunningly good. saw it within the past year and i still felt like i was learning. the whole team is part of its achievement, but in particular william goldman holds a revered place in my mind as a writer, because of his versatility, his ability to grow wildly different characters from the inside. for example, magic isn't an impressive movie overall, but the part where anthony hopkins is confronted by a perspective of unbelievability, and he sits there on the couch and you can feel him shaking on the inside, getting to that point in a narrative and with a character requires all kinds of proper development. to earn the emotions of that scene, there's gotta be a lot of legwork, and the scene is a funny illustration of how i know there's a relatability between me and crazy people. i never like the little expressions of triumph people make when a "tough person" is forced to cry because i never believe anyone is tough in the first place, i believe we're all a bit like anthony hopkins there on the couch

E.T. (stunningly great, saw it 2 weeks ago and it made me cry, I don't think many films pack the emotional punch of those last 30 minutes). Saw it at 2, changed everything.

Who framed Roger Rabbit? made me realize there's a director.

JFK fucked with my head and made me paranoid at 11.

Husbands & Wives was my first Woody Allen and it blew my mind. I was 12.

I saw Pulp Fiction and Ed Wood in the same week at 14. Months before I had seen Natural Born Killers. Endless new possibilities about cinema suddenly appeared.

A Clockwork Orange and 2001 kept expanding that.

Shortcuts, don't even know how to point exactly how, but it just reconnected me with small human stories on a big scale.

It all kind of started to really make sense with Goodfellas.

Nixon gave me perspective on just how huge a personal vision can be. Casino cemented in me the notion of detail. I watched it compulsively for months; a few times on mute, once with my eyes covered during the three hours running time, to appreciate the sound design.

Persona and 8 1/2 really kind of settled it, I could watch anything and wanted to.

The first movie that really blew my mind was Titanic. It was a totally epic and immersive theatrical experience unlike anything I had seen before, and I was 14 years old without an ounce of cynicism. Saw it with my dad in the theater, and when the movie ended we just looked at each other like it was the best thing we had ever seen. I had no clue why everyone didn't feel the same way, and I was very excited to watch it sweep the Oscars. I bought the James Horner soundtrack (I was really into movie soundtracks at the time), and then I watched Braveheart (as a James Horner fan? I'm not sure), and that blew my mind too. Wish I could have seen that in the theater.

But the film that really changed my life was, of course, Magnolia. I remember watching the teaser trailer and the theatrical trailer repeatedly, thrilled that I had no idea what this movie had in store for me. After I saw it that first time, I knew that it had completely reshaped my brain. I saw it seven times in the theater, bringing everyone I knew so I could give them this gift. I then evangelized Magnolia to anyone who would listen. When I later worked at Blockbuster for a year (when I was 17), Magnolia was my standard recommendation to literally anyone who asked for one.

Obviously 1999 was a pretty good year to become a cinephile, and this is when I really started watching a ton of movies.

Requiem For A Dream was the third really pivotal movie, coming one year after Magnolia. I watched the trailer obsessively and literally counted the days until its release, because I absolutely knew this movie was for me. I saw it in an enormous theater with very loud speakers. I'll never forget that first title card coming down with the sound of a metal door slamming shut. I knew the movie was supposed to be bleak, but I was giddy through the whole thing.

When I was a little kid my dad was still doing med school stuff and there was a little library in the building where you rent vhs tapes for free.


This is when I first saw fantastic planet, nausicca valley of the wind, and the Jan svankmajer version of Alice in wonderland.

I was homeschooled my whole life as some of you know, so for a long time my only friends were vhs and I collected them like crazy. My mom would take me to video stores and says that I would always go for the ones with 'blood dripping off the box'.  They decided reluctantly to let me start watching horror movies and I devoured everything I could get my hands on.

Along with the first three I mentioned, Texas chainsaw massacre and blade runner are the ones I remember earliest having a huge effect on me.

03, is it possible that you actually watched Warriors of the Wind? The original dub of Nausicca was apparently a true atrocity- the poster art below is pretty terrible/hilarious as it is. Nausicca was never a favourite of mine but I'm pretty interested in catching WotW, just to see the damage.

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wow yes. i forgot about that totally. the original vhs dubs for all those studio ghibli stuff usually terrible. i still have my neighbor totoros vhs and the english is so scary.

For me it started with Thomas and the Magic Railroad. I was 4 when it came out and it's the first movie I ever saw in a theater. Not sure if anybody else has seen it but at the time that railroad was pretty fucking magical. I haven't watched it since, I don't want to.

After that I think I've always had some sort of obsession. My mom used to drop me off at Blockbuster while she did her shopping, I'd spend an hour+ picking the right movies for the 4/weekly deal they had. Then for years movies stayed as good entertainment, there were a few that made me realize their capacity for more, but with the selection I'd been exposed to (popular movies), I assumed there were very few that had achieved this. Lord of The Rings was one of the first ones that made me feel things.

I remember when I first discovered the world of good movies, I was about 16 and I'd just read The Shining, I'd heard there was a movie of it, and that it was supposedly very good. I watched it expecting to be thrown back into the Overlook Hotel with the Torrance family I'd come to know. Instead I was let down in that respect, but exposed to Penderecki and rivers of blood and a type of fear I'd never thought a movie could make me experience. At that point I went searching through IMDB for movies supposedly influenced by The Shining. Almost instantly came across There Will Be Blood, watched it, didn't get it, PTA's heart had gone over my head.

After a similar experience with Magnolia, I came across Hard Eight. I felt it finally, I cared about the characters, as people. No movie had ever really made me want to be a better person until I saw that. It instantly became my favourite movie and I went on to watch and rewatch all of PTA's other movies with opened eyes. Loved all of them and I eventually found this place. That's when movies really became more than entertainment and actually started influencing my life and decisions. Honestly I think that 90% of any good qualities I have can be attributed to movies. I mean movies are abstracted from the real world, so it's not really the movies as much as it is what they showed me about life. So thanks movies, and xixax for showing me the best ones.

Quote from: Gold Trumpet on February 20, 2003, 05:37:02 PM
Die Hard got me to just love movies when I was 13, even if action movies only at the time. I still love the movie and is the only movie where I have every line, camera angle and shot already in my head. I had to have seen it over 150 times easily.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came for me when I was 15 to really enjoy older movies since I was still entertainment driven only in my watching movies but my defending of the movie to other people really got me interested in other movies.

2001: A Space Odyssey overwhelmed me completely and drew me to consider movies at a higher degree than just entertainment. After that, my outlook changed so much that the previous two movies were completely off my radar screen though I've come back to admire both greatly. This movie really changed my life.

Walkabout made me believe in myself that I could actually make a living of making movies since I was in belief that it was for people a lot more talented to me. But the simple visual poetry in it very much went to my liking and understanding that it made me believe I could do it and understand how to do it.

That is what I said in 2003. Funny because if I was asked to remember now, I wouldn't have been as bold face in talking about Butch Cassidy or 2001: A Space Odyssey since my opinion on both movies has changed a lot and my memory isn't so clear now as it was, shit, over 12 years ago.

I paused a few times before responding to this post. Die Hard is still the movie that made movies in general so digestible to me. I believer when you're young, you get a gut taste of what appease the senses and it broadens from there. Sometimes the change can go as far as 180 degrees and continually do revolutions later on, and like many, it has. It also hasn't in other ways. Never became fascinated by Star Wars or many other popular movies as a kid so it hasn't held same dig into my heart like it has with others.

I've attempted two drafts of this post on separate occasions, but always felt like I got lost in the weeds with all the details and wasn't getting my point across. As Polka said, maybe some things are better left for our memoirs. I'm gonna attempt to write it though, because it's been nagging at me for weeks.

It's normal for all kids to watch their favorite movies over and over and I don't consider that cinephilia. The staples for me were Disney's 'Beauty and The Beast', 'The Rescuers Down Under', 'Mrs. Doubtfire', and 'Jurassic Park'. I don't have anything to comment on these films in particular except that I watched them repeatedly on a day to day basis and they provided me with an immense comfort.

At age 5, I snuck 'Friday The 13th Part 5' into our rental stack at blockbuster. I chose it knowing that the inoffensive cover wouldn't startle my mom


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I remember coming home that afternoon feeling so lucky about what I got away with. I immediately put it on, making sure to stay extra close to the screen so I could ride the volume or stop it if someone came in the room. Right away, I was transported into this adult world where I had no idea what the codes of conduct were for these characters besides that Jason was going to kill them. All of the profanity and nudity was just icing on the cake for me, and messed me up a lot worse than any of the onscreen violence I saw. There's a scene where Jason decapitates a man riding a motorcycle and as a lad I thought "are movies really allowed to be this cool?" Bear in mind that I also believed I was witnessing actual deaths by volunteers who either wanted to commit suicide, had cancer, or were on death row. It really was a sensory overload and perverted me in a lot of ways , but looking back I know that I wasn't traumatized by it. I loved the entire spectacle of it and just wanted to find more in any way I could.

The next year, my brother and I flew to Florida by ourselves to visit my Grandma. One night, he tricked her into renting 'From Dusk Til Dawn' for us. I don't think she even cared about what we watched as long as she wasn't present for it. I didn't know that I was in for a horror movie or being introduced to who would become one of my all time favorite directors. That movie really kicked it up a notch in terms of my connoisseurship, because it throws you for such a loop thinking it's this heavy crime film at first but then it's so funny and suspenseful and action packed that when the vampires show up you're like "ok, where the am I?" It really solidified the idea in my head that a movie could be so much more than just one thing, like you could just throw everything but the kitchen sink into these motherfuckers.

From then on, I was devouring any horror I could get my hands on, Child's Play, Halloween, A Nightmare On Elm Street. Now I knew that the violence wasn't real, but still didn't understand how it was executed. I became a little more discriminating in my taste, avoiding 'cheesy movies' where the special effects looked fake, acting was lame, or camera work sucked. My parents had caught on by now that this was a fetish of mine and became a little more discriminating about what they'd let me rent by reading the synopsis or checking the ratings. They really just didn't want me to be exposed to any extreme sexual violence or serial killer type stuff at that age and I thank them for that.

At a certain point, when they'd knowingly been renting me R Rated movies for such a long time, my Dad decided to step in and up the ante by recommending 'The Shining'. I was hypnotized by it, and unlike all the schlock I'd seen, actually scared. Like, palpable fear that's bubbling up in your chest and making you start to question your own surroundings. I'd never felt that actual ghostly presence in any of the slasher films I watched. I think it really opened my mind to movies as being beyond just entertainment, because that haunting feeling would stay with me all day long, like I'd been infected by it.

'Carrie', 'The Fly', and 'The Thing' were some other suggestions from my Dad, so by the time I was 12 my head was thoroughly fucked. Then one night at Blockbuster when I was having trouble picking something he shows me the box for 'Taxi Driver', making sure to point out a picture of his mohawk to ensure that 'he goes crazy by the end'. I was underwhelmed by the violence in it, because there was nothing more grotesque than what I'd already seen. What I connected to was the sense of danger throughout, that the city threatened Travis at every turn and made him a monster. As I revisited the film through my teens, I never identified with a protagonist so much or really have since.

12 was a pivotal year for me. All I wanted to watch were Scorsese films after TD. My Dad told me a story about the time him and my Mom hitchhiked to Colorado and caught the Telluride Film Festival where they sat in the same aisle as Marty and Isabella Rossellini for a screening. After reading This passage (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=7673.msg314933#msg314933) in Roger Ebert's memoir, I've never thought of that encounter the same. I watched Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, whatever I could find. They brought my obsession with violence and art of the profane to a new low. Taxi Driver remains my favorite movie to this day, and it introduced to the concept of a 'director's vision' by seeing Scorsese's other work and noticing the same themes throughout. It wasn't until later that year I think I became a true cinephile, though.

One day at the library, I suggest to my mom that she rent 'Magnolia'. I had seen the TV spots and was genuinely interested in it, but since it was a drama that had a flower on the cover, I felt like I needed her stamp of approval. She gave it an attempt, but told me it was 'weird' and couldn't finish it, so I put it on fully knowing I was in for something special. All I can say is that it transformed my idea of what movies could be. By the end, I was so perplexed by it that I stayed up the whole night thinking about what it meant.  I just looked out my window as the sun rose and thought about all the people I knew who weren't having as profound an experience as I was coming off from this movie.

That summer, my cousin visits, and the reason that's important will come in later. One night, we're hanging out at the bonfire in my backyard and my brother and his friends come home drunk from a party. It was the first time that he was 'cool' with letting me hang out with him while they were doing something bad. They get into a conversation about 'Requiem For A Dream' and how fucked up it was. His friend says his brother saw the NC-17 version where the end was even MORE graphic. My mind tries to comprehend what that could be, I've seen the cover and know that the movie is about heroin, does a guy shoot heroin into his eye at the end?

My cousin and I are getting along so well, our parents decide I should go and stay with him in Michigan for a few weeks. It's exciting at first, until I get hooked onto his dull routine and am basically subjected to what he wants to do day after day. This involves an obscene amount of watching movies, to the point where Half Baked, Detroit Rock City, and all of the good 90's Sandler movies mean absolutely nothing to me now because I've seen them so many goddamn times. I didn't think it was possible for me to hate movies as much as he made me then. Towards the end of the trip, I go and stay at my uncle's house to wait for my parents to pick me up. It was such a relief, they had this nice spread out in the country with miles of woods behind it. I'd take walks back there, looking for snakes as I was accustomed to do. Then, for the first time in my life, I had the urge to write. I felt so embarrassed about it that I'd hide the notebook under my shirt and walk a good mile out into the woods before I sat down to do it. The two ideas I got at the time were about a couple of kids who went out looking for snakes and ran into a scraggly hillbilly, and a guy who was obsessed with tracking down coincidental connections in the newspaper. I had been pondering over Magnolia so much that I wanted to look deeper into the meaning behind it, so I used whatever the popular search was at the time to bring me to PTAnderson.com, which I can describe as nothing less than a rabbit hole of information for my young mind.  The only person I can remember from here back then is Pubrick, because he always had the bee and his opinions were the strongest.

While in Michigan, I rent 'Requiem For A Dream' and it's the most devastating cinematic experience of my life. I can't understand how a film could portray such cruelty and be so unredeeming by the end. I realize the scene my brother and his friend were talking about and feel like I've been duped. It leaves me in a funk for days, where all I can do is rewatch it to try and figure out: why would a filmmaker be so punishing to his audience?  It keeps me coming back to mull over these feelings again and again, like a drug of its own. I have to buy it and show it to friends just to try and share those emotions with someone. From then on, I'd seek out more and more disturbing content that would leave me confused, dissatisfied, or offended.

I had no idea what I was in for seeing 'Storytelling' for the first time. I almost felt like Todd Solondz should've been arrested for the places he dared to go. I loved the sharpness of his dialogue, how he could make one line sting so much that it kept you thinking for awhile. It pissed me off, though. I couldn't understand what his stance was on anything or why he even wanted me to watch it. It's one of my favorite films to this day for that very reason, I'm still trying to find out.

marquee that whole post, duh

At 13, Taxi Driver woke me up to the idea that you can see the world through a director's eyes. I'll never forget the day I went to Tower Records and picked up the DVD, unaware of how far it would take me. Had a hard Scorsese trip for several months. The best gateway drug.

At 14, Magnolia and Boogie Nights first showed me a vision that felt like home, and nailed the idea that drama is best when married with humor. I was blown away by the content in these movies...Frank TJ Mackey's speeches, BG's whole porn story in general, and that PT lacked self-consciousness in putting it out there. He didn't care what people might think, and harvested his most personal thoughts for spotlit display. Part of it was just being 14, but it was the ballsiest thing in the world to me at the time. Respect for life. These also starred characters who weren't "made for the movies". They weren't necessarily important people, their crises were smaller in scope, but the stories played out as if they weren't. "Anything can be material for a movie, everyone's story is worth telling from the right angle", I thought.

At 15, Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness were the first films to make me feel sick, and I avoided both for a while, until I realized it was because they were true.

Videodrome, Crash, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch showed me beauty in perversity, but for a meaningful end. A professor would later tell me to "put my idea into an object", which fundamentally altered my approach to writing, and nothing has typified the heights this can reach for me like Cronenberg's films.

You Can Count On Me made my heart swell. I loved it for its writing and the empathy it had for its characters, and it was different than what I'd been watching in the couple years leading up to this point in that it didn't contain any violence, or swearing, or really anything "edgy" that I was naively convinced movies needed to have in order to be 'cool'. Road marker.

Kieslowski's Blue, White, and The Decalogue exposed me to a new plane of filmmaking. "Movies can do this???" I guess my introduction to foreign films, too. I didn't love Red. Still don't love Red.

At 16, Network brainwashed me into thinking dialogue was sacred text for several years, until I lost enough ego to admit I'd never be Paddy Chayefsky.

Also around 16, Benny's Video, Funny Games, The Seventh Continent, and The Piano Teacher opened up my brain to a different kind of director's vision, one more detached, less emotionally involved. I saw people in a way I'd never seen before watching Haneke's movies. It shocked me that he could film characters in such a way that removed his personal politics towards them and (I thought) observed them more objectively. Until Haneke, I couldn't conceive of putting a camera on two people and not having it interpret their conversation exactly as I saw it through my own eyes. The camera's POV could reveal something less soiled by subjective perception. It was like growing up and seeing your parents as people for the first time, less marred by your close connection to them. Revelation.

At 17, Eyes Wide Shut changed my sense of storytelling and turned me on to a concept I call "associative narratives". Parallel storylines that illuminate each other without directly intersecting. Later on, Safe and The Master would tap that same vein.

From there it was a gradual deepening of interest in elements I'd seen in films earlier on...

Sunset Blvd., Singin' in the Rain, and A Face in the Crowd all stood as new pinnacles of what American movies could be.

The Naked City, In A Lonely Place, and The Killing got me into noir, which I never made it out of.

Bob le flambeur, Le Samourai, and Le Cercle Rouge showed me that crime movies could be more than about their plots — they could have a philosophy. This changed my expectations of everything I saw going forward. Would a film do more?

Scenes from a Marriage expanded my understanding of how nuanced a film could be, with performances that ran deeper than anything else I'd encountered.

And The Killing of a Chinese Bookie convinced me that no matter how much I love the more traditionally cinematic aspects of film: expressive lighting, editing, shot design, at the end of the day it's the actor that matters above all else.