Eli, seriously. Come on. You’re better than this.
This can be like the ‘Films you are ashamed to say you have not seen (yet)’ thread but with less shame, or more shame, I can’t tell. I just haven’t got around to watching/hunting down those films but I intend to soon. You can’t say you’ve never had high high hopes for a film, can you?
I’ve never seen Heaven, and I’m not quite sure that that’s where I’m going, but I have a sneaky feeling . . .
I loved Haggis’ Crash before seeing it, then I saw it and hated it cuz nobody was turned on by car crashes. I remember yelling “Where the fuck is Jimmy Spader?” Plus, apparently there are racists in LA, and I will have none of that!
The only movie i can think of that is like this is the carebears movie. I haven’t seen it, but I know that if i watch it, I’m gonna think it’s gold.
Two that come to mind right now are If… and Mon oncle Antoine, but there are plenty more. Plenty.
This is ludicrous.
That’s absolutely bizarre. I mean, what you’re talking about is a little insubstantial for my tastes. I mean, I loved the cover art for Mishima before I saw it, but I doubt that’s what you’re talking about. Either way, I’d suggest actually seeing those movies before putting them on a ‘favorites’ list.
No no, I think I’m being misinterpreted. I’m in no way saying that I have any personal opinion on those films, exactly – how could I when I’ve never seen them? All I mean by liking a film before you’ve seen it is just you making an assumption based on things that you’ve read or heard about the film that you will like it. I guess it was too early in the morning to start a thread.
For me its more like I’m craving to watch certain films, but just don’t have access to them. They’re not part of my favorite list or anything, but I’d love to watch them.
Nikhil hit it on the thread. This should have been ‘movies you just can’t get your hands on’. I’ve been dying to see Carol Reed’s “Odd Man Out” for years. I’m pretty sure, based on his other films, that I would really enjoy this movie. Same for many Orson Welles movies that I can’t get and haven’t seen, “The Magnificent Ambersons”, “Chimes At Midnight” and so on.
Soybean-Odd Man Out and The Magnificent Ambersons play occassionally on TCM.
Unfortunately I cancelled my cable tv. I just couldn’t take it anymore. There’s very little that I miss, but TCM is one of them.
I see what you’re saying, but I think you’ve mis-worded your thought. You can love the idea of a film, or the cover art, or (for what seems to be the case for a lot of people on this site) just the fact that it’s released through Criterion, but to say that you love a film before you’ve seen it is kind of jumping the gun. I thought I’d like HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR and was bored to tears.
This is a separate thought, but I think a lot of us, especially maybe the younger ones who discovered arthouse/foreign films through Criterion, tend to get a little too starry-eyed about these Criterion releases; it’s as if the possession of the coveted DVD displaces interest in the actual film itself. I know I have been guilty of this myself — I’d be looking through the Criterion section and find myself drooling based on purely aesthetic reasons — though I have learned to somewhat control myself. Does this resonate with anyone?
I’m halfway tempted to start a thread called “Great Films I Love, Although For the Life of Me I Can’r Remember Why.”
Take, for example, “Hiroshima, Mon Amour.” I watched it for the first time several years ago, loved it, headed for an on-line forum (which has since vanished) wrote up my thoughts and discussed it with others. Now I can’t even remember what the film is about, except that it involves a man, a woman, and, somewhere along in there, Hiroshima. I really need to rent it again.
I think everyones being a little hard on you for this. I understand what you mean , everyone has films that they haven’t seen but plan to that they are excited about, for example I haven’t seen DIAL M FOR MURDER- but i love it already because i love Hitchcock I adore Grace Kelly the premise excites me i feel enthusiasm about it. Do some of you people really go to movies without an ounce of joy or excitement for the possibilities that await you? Do films have to “prove” themselves to you before you show them any interest or affection? just seems cold to me.
I love ‘Cria Cuervos’, and I’ve never seen that. The reason is that one of my favorite films is ‘The Spirit of The Beehive’, and they sound similar with the same actress. I also want to love a lot of films, but once I see them, don’t. I’m glad to see someone else does this.
How about, for a variation — films whose concept/idea you love, even if you haven’t seen them? Like, I’ve got Stalker and Repulsion coming up on my NetFlix queue, and I can pretty much say those movies are built toward my tastes. Both are movies about dissociation and fear, and Stalker in particular is supposed to be dreamlike and surreal… and I’m a big fan of movies about alternate mental universes.
It’s even more interesting when you “love” a film in this way (by way of its concept), and then you see it, and it doesn’t quite meet your expectations. This happened to me with Le Samourai and Fata Morgana — both sounded like ideal movies for my tastes, but both turned out to be a little less compelling than I’d have liked. I found the resolution to Le Samourai to be a little anticlimactic, and even though Fata Morgana was fascinating, it was just slow enough that I had a little trouble keeping my attention on it.
Haneke’s The White ribbon…
- Anything – but anything – by Charlie Kaufman
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Anything by Jan Svankmajer
- The films of Jean Painlevé
- Whichever few films by Bertrand Blier I haven’t seen, yet. Ditto with Dusan Makavejev.
Mister Dob
Is it normal to love a film you’ve never seen? Here are some films I love that I’ve never seen:
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Anything by Wong Kar-Wai
The Hidden Fortress
Woman In The Dunes
Ivan The Terrible
La Dolce Vita
Harakiri
Le Samourai
and
Rififi
It would be hard for me to pinpoint it, but every one of these films appeals to me so much that I could almost already tell you that it I thought it was excellent.
Does anyone else get this?