The Movie(s) That Made You a Cinephile

Started by phil marlowe, February 20, 2003, 01:14:04 PM

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ReelHotGames

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
"Body Count Cinema the Customizable Card Game"
A cinematic CCG coming to a coffee table near you!
www.reelhotgames.com/BodyCountCinema_Home.htm

Tommy Both

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..

Rudie Obias

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.
\"a pair of eyes staring at you, projected on a large screen is what cinema is truly about.\" -volker schlöndorff

ksmc

"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.
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules."

estragon

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.

Ghostboy

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).

©brad

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."

tpfkabi

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!
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

b/a

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.
"Film is truth 24 times a second"-JLG

snaporaz

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.

Cecil

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.

snaporaz

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

holy shit. i was twelve.

goddamn.

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?

snaporaz

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.

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.