The Movie(s) That Made You a Cinephile

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ · August 15, 2003, 05:38:56 PM

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.

smash · August 15, 2003, 05:56:11 PM

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.

Ernie · August 15, 2003, 08:13:00 PM

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.

Alethia · August 15, 2003, 10:09:16 PM

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.

Find Your Magali · August 16, 2003, 10:40:03 AM

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...

Vile5 · August 16, 2003, 04:12:49 PM

"Rain Man"

aclockworkjj · August 16, 2003, 04:53:19 PM

ET....first one I saw.

MacGuffin · October 23, 2003, 09:03:42 PM

Quote from: Vile5"Rain Man"

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.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ · November 23, 2003, 09:23:14 PM

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

nix · November 23, 2003, 10:02:59 PM

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.

Gloria · November 23, 2003, 10:09:57 PM

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.

NEON MERCURY · November 24, 2003, 12:06:29 AM

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!!!!!!!!!

haps6296 · December 03, 2003, 12:42:07 AM

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...

freakerdude · December 03, 2003, 01:47:44 AM

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.

socketlevel · January 09, 2005, 02:55:26 PM

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-