Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

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JacoIII
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by JacoIII »

I find it hard to just sink into films. I always find myself floating above, watching the way a scene or certain piece of dialogue is put together. It's not that way with books, I can get lost in a written narrative but for some reason film doesn't do that for me often.

I wish it did. I might just need to change up my watching habits.

I think it's because I'm always trying to write a screenplay/a play/a radio play/sketch comedy/other bullshit. It makes it so hard to immerse myself in something great instead of taking two steps back to learn why it's so great. I lose the big picture while gaining the minute details.

I'm impressed that there are a few people in this thread who are working on movies but are still able to consistently get real enjoyment out of films. That's awesome.

tef
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by tef »

JacoIII wrote:I find it hard to just sink into films. I always find myself floating above, watching the way a scene or certain piece of dialogue is put together. It's not that way with books, I can get lost in a written narrative but for some reason film doesn't do that for me often.

I wish it did. I might just need to change up my watching habits.

I think it's because I'm always trying to write a screenplay/a play/a radio play/sketch comedy/other bullshit. It makes it so hard to immerse myself in something great instead of taking two steps back to learn why it's so great. I lose the big picture while gaining the minute details.

I'm impressed that there are a few people in this thread who are working on movies but are still able to consistently get real enjoyment out of films. That's awesome.


I recommend going to a very uncrowded theater with a friend while on the heels of an LSD trip. You will not be thinking much in terms of conscious analysis, but you will be paying rapt attention.

cameron326
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by cameron326 »

I didn't really enjoy North by Northwest either. Some of the individual scenes were great - particularly the plane scene, the antique bidding scene. But the story jut got more ridiculous and cliched as the film went on. And I was not impressed wth either Cary Grant or the female lead. From what I've seen of his films, I think the Hitchcock films that avoid the big setpieces seen in the Birds and N by NW are superior.

I think Totoro and Spirited Away are both great, but Totoro is nearly flawless the whole film whereas Spirited Away has its great moments and its just good moments.

In terms of getting 'into' movies, havent tried the LSD method myself, but a couple of beers certainly seem to make me respond more emotionally to films. I've watched Titanc twice: the first time, sober as a judge, I enjoyed the cinematography and sneered at everything else. The second time, knocking back a few beerios to the action on screen, I was a blubbering wreck (wreck, geddit?)

TheDenizen
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by TheDenizen »

I was on a pretty intense psychedelic trip the first time I watched Kurosawa's Ran....and it instantly became my favorite film ever.

Thankfully, subsequent (sober) viewings have proved to be very nearly as powerful emotionally.

paulofilmo
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by paulofilmo »

sebby wrote:
paulofilmo wrote:There was a time when I looked up to admirers of classics. Then a time when I was a confidant admirer myself, free from aspiration. Then an especially arrogant time when I felt above even connoisseurs for their poor taste in certain acclaimed films. But before all of that, a time when I just enjoyed film, unsullied by anything.


When I first got into film (in my teens), I ignored the classics, knowing that for whatever reason I would find them boring, predictable, melodramatic, etc. I could appreciate unseen cult films like Roger Dodger or Kicking and Screaming, but watching something like Casablanca bored me to tears. I, too, felt I had the greatest taste in the world and couldn't be bothered with the crap other people foolishly thought was part of the cinematic pantheon. It's taken me more than 10 years of intense film-viewing to reach the point where I can gleefully seek out, unabashedly enjoy, and critically admire films like Treasure of the Sierra Madre or North by Northwest. It's sort of exhilarating, if somewhat predictable and boring as well.


I remember when I first found MetaFilter, I jumped to the most popular posts ever and soaked up the most favorited of favorited FFPs and AskMes. I then went to the real-time popular posts but was disappointed by the volume, noise of nerdery, posturing, quasi-oration. But there was enough there to entertain, and after a while I could understand the in-jokes and generally grokked the culture of the place. So then I had cliquey inclusion, entertainment, and habit. And now I'm a bit bored of it and I'm not sure if I ever found anything that bested that original wisdom. I guess that's a stretchy analogy to my film-viewing. I want the secret and I think I've been looking in the wrong place.

TheDenizen wrote:
paulofilmo wrote:Is there a blog that posts yt vids where I can sample the smorgasbord of crap? the veritable whores doovries of the weird and the awful?

I wish. There are, however, several excellent websites which specialize in bad/cult/underground movie reviews.

Here's a handful if you're interested. :D
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/
http://www.monstersatplay.com/index.php
http://www.coldfusionvideo.com/
http://tarstarkas.net/
http://www.wtfcinema.com/

I'm sorry. That's not. Monster Costumes and violence aren't my cup. Sorry and thank you. I'm trying to figure out what the hell I was asking for. Moving poetry that I'm not ashamed to watch on my laptop. Frenetic surrealism. Short films by undiscovered genii. A beautiful girl in deck shoes running away from something unknown. Stealing flowers at night. Smoking in the shower. A forty-eight second psychosexual nightmare. Ephemera about coal miner shovel instruction.

tef
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by tef »

Paolo, are you a person or a confusion machine?

Spunkie
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by Spunkie »

Paulo originally came into existence during WWII with the capability to confuse an army out of existence. Fact.

TheDenizen
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by TheDenizen »

paulofilmo wrote:I'm sorry. That's not. Monster Costumes and violence aren't my cup. Sorry and thank you. I'm trying to figure out what the hell I was asking for. Moving poetry that I'm not ashamed to watch on my laptop. Frenetic surrealism. Short films by undiscovered genii. A beautiful girl in deck shoes running away from something unknown. Stealing flowers at night. Smoking in the shower. A forty-eight second psychosexual nightmare. Ephemera about coal miner shovel instruction.

Well let me know if you find any of that. ;)

Monster costumes and violence is where my brain resides.

paulofilmo
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by paulofilmo »

Monster costumes are nice sometimes.

TheDenizen
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Re: Great Movie-Watching Runs (And What They Do to You)

Post by TheDenizen »

well....that was interesting.

Could've used a disemboweling though. :)

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