As featured on my blog interrobang‽:
It occurred to me a few weeks ago, upon finally realizing the end of 2010 and the beginning of a new year, that I have watched a lot of films within 12 months.
As a former film student and production-seeking career girl (I can't really say I'm in film until my paycheck says so - advertising, I'm afraid, does not count), this should not be surprising. Nevertheless, it is.
My taste (and experience) in the art of watching films has transformed exponentially over the last few years of my life. Obviously, my NYU film courses were the first major transition from watching movies purely for entertainment to analysis of the film craft. I had always admired filmmaking from afar, thanks to my mother's long-standing awe of classic films and Simpsons parodies. And there were always the TV movies, childhood movies, and summer blockbusters that one fixates on amidst boring suburban life. These were always, for the most part, from one of the following categories:
- Classics Films before 1970
- Oscar nominees
- Movie Premieres on network television
- Disney
- Excuses to go to a movie theater
- Action Flicks
- Childhood Favorites
I had never seen an art house film (nor were they part of my regular vocabulary), and indie flicks had not yet assumed the norm. My parents and friends didn't know of any, so neither did I. And besides - I was content with my list, entertaining no other possibility for film other than the usual plot-driven, dramatic/comedy/action/thriller I had grown to love and aspired to make. Under no circumstances did this include horror films - why, it took me years just to sit down to watch Jurassic Park without peeing my pants.
Cue the harsh slap-in-the-face that is film school. Some fellow classmates didn't think I had the knowledge for it. Maybe I didn't - but wasn't that the point of learning?
It was humbling to see that the art of film was not so black and white, as it had seemed; there were some films that never made it to the Oscars, but were admirable nonetheless. There were short films that only showed at festivals, B films and C films, films done for art-sake and films done for the hell of it. Some "stories" focused on character development only, while others seemed to be about nothing at all. I finally got to watch some of the breakout and cult films of the first 14 years of my life that I was never privy to, simply because I wasn't considered mature enough to watch them at the time: films like
Pulp Fiction,
Goodfellas, and
Clerks, which was shot less than 10 minutes from my house.
At this point, one can revel in the discovery of so many new realizations, or curse themselves for being the idiot who hadn't come about this knowledge earlier. I fell for the latter, mainly because I was 17, on my own, and full of fun emotional drama.
It's taken since that first year of college to really get the courage to dip my toes into the pool of films I dared not touch before. I have to thank my professors first, and my friends after, for introducing me to them, as I trembled, unworthy. A few of them worked at the old TLA Video on 8th Street before it closed down, and each had their own specialty of favorites within the film world. If I attempted to describe each of their tastes in three words, they would be:
MARK: Brooding, Foreign, Cannes
JAMES: Character, Epic, Journeys
JOSH: Cult, Offbeat, Horror
Though there were many instances of shock and awe throughout my education, one that stands out the most as something that stuck with me quite indefinitely was
The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
This is not the type of film I would have gone to on my own - I had never heard of either the director or the title, but apparently it was big enough to be shown at IFC at midnight frequently. They insisted I go, and it being my college years, why the hell not? However, I was not ready for the symbolic imagery barrage with each chanting, triangle-trilled, vibrational-pulsed moment. Quite frankly, it was the strangest film I had ever seen, but I could not look away. And I could not stop thinking about it afterward. I've seen it three times since then, and have even written an entire thesis paper on its subject of religious symbolism. That's more intellectual fodder than
Forrest Gump could ever provide.
Watching "Daisies" in Prague had a similar effect; I knew it must be laden with meaning; but even aside from that it was a rhythmic poem that replayed in my mind. And so since then, many fascinating films have crossed my eyes and riddled my eardrums - even, I must admit, horror films. Ryan has done a good job of forcing me to sit through them, and I can't say that I'm not grateful (though I could do without the occasional shocking scare that streaks my hair grey and inflicts possible stomach ulcers.)
The point in all of this, of course, being that traveling, meeting others and experiencing life as a more mature (but let's not get carried away), open-minded individual has given me the chance to really appreciate a film on a deeper level.
That said, I'd still take
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles any day. You can't become too pretentious, you know.
OH, THE FILMS I HAVE WATCHED: 2010
- Labyrinth, Jim Henson (1986)
- Made in the USA, Jean-Luc Godard (1966)
- The Short Films of Al Jarnow, Al Jarnow (2010)
- Shutter Island, Martin Scorcese (2010)
- Suburban Commando, Burt Kennedy (1991)
- District 9, Neil Blomkamp (2009)
- Kamikaze GirlsTetsuya Nakashima (2004)
- Dolls, Stuart Gordon (1987)
- Day of the Dead, Steve Miner (2008)
- Mr. Booogedy, Oz Scott (1986)
- Hot Tub Time Machine, Steve Pink (2010)
- Iron Man 2, Jon Favreau (2010)
- Metropolis, Fritz Lang (1927)
- Best Worst Movie: Troll 2, Michael Stephenson (2009)
- Possessed ["Bool-sin-ji-ok"], Lee Yong-ju (2009)
- Tetsuo: The Bullet Man, Shinya Tsukamoto (2009)
- Brazil, Terry Gilliam (1985)
- The Tenant, Roman Polanksi (1976)
- Diva, Jean-Jacques Beineix (1981)
- Performance, Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg (1970)
- Daisies, Vera Chytilová (1966)
- The Mist, Frank Darabont (2007)
- Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General, Michael Reeves (1968)
- A Town Called Panic, Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar (2009)
- The Naked Kiss, Samuel Fuller (1964)
- The Fearless Vampire Killers, Roman Polanski (1967)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Edgar Wright (2010)
- It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine!, David Brothers & Crispin Glover (2007)
- I Sell the Dead, Glenn McQuaid (2008)
- Simon: King of the Witches, Bruce Kessler (1971)
- The Skull, Freddie Francis (1975)
- Enter the Void, Gaspar Noé (2009)
- The Social Network, David Fincher (2010)
- The Gate, Tibor Takács (1987)
- [REC], Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza (2007)
- The Red Shoes, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (1948)
- Polyester, John Waters (1981)
- Solaris, Andrey Tarkovskiy (1972)
- Nosferatu the Vampyre, Werner Herzog (1979)
- Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, David Lynch (1992)
- The Kingdom ["Riget"], Lars von Trier (TV Series - 1994)
- The Road, John Hillcoat (2009)
- Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders (1984)
- Days of Heaven, Terrence Malick (1978)
- The Exploding Girl, Bradley Rust Grey (2009)
- Four Flies On Grey Velvet, Dario Argento (1971)
- Krull, Peter Yates (1983)
- Summer Wars, Mamoru Hosoda (2009)
- Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky (2010)
- Fritz the Cat, Ralph Bakshi (1972)
- Tentacles, Ovidio G. Assonitis (1977)
- Heavy Metal, Gerald Potterton (1981)
- Innerspace, Joe Dante (1987)
