Giving 5 stars / becoming a fan to/of a film after only one viewing.
Star ratings are a pretty artificial way to evaluate films anyway, so it doesn´t really matter how many of them individual users want to attribute to films they like. If anything the ratings tell other users with similar tastes which films they might want to check out, but other than that giving stars to films is a rather meaningles endavor (which can be fun if one is currently bored though).
Generally speaking, I only give out 5 star ratings to films which crack my Top 50 (which happens pretty frequently- I’m still fairly new to cinema and constantly watching great movies for the first time). Anyways, I usually know where I stand on a film after one viewing, and there are only a handful of times when my opinion of a movie has DRASTICALLY changed after multiple viewings (see 2001, Citizen Kane). And I only become a fan of a film if it gets into my Top 10. This can also happen after just one viewing.
A film can definitely get a 5/ be an instant favourite after one viewing…. in fact a films good enough for you to consider giving it a 5 on initial viewing then thats probably testament to how good it actually is.
What’s so sacred about five stars?
I’m more baffled that this is even an issue.
A 10/10 for me actually is a bit on the “sacred” side, of the roughly 1300 films I’ve ranked, only given out thirty 10s. A 10 on my rating scale is absolute perfection, which while a lot of movies are good, even excellent, few are perfect.
Giving out a 10 on first viewing for me is rare, but certainly not impossible. Most of the time I’ve found they start at like an 8/9 first viewing, some time passes and you find yourself thinking about the film a lot… then that second viewing happens and yep, suspicion confirmed… a ten is born!
Not to say that was the films “peak” viewing even, it is interesting how some films peak earlier (1st or 2nd viewing) and some later (4th, 5th, ect.) I don’t think there is anything intrinsically inferior/superior about a film that blooms late as opposed to one that blooms early, both are valid, it just depends on the film.
I often give older films an A+ (aka five stars) more often than I give newer films the rating. The last movie I gave an A+ to was Kurosawa’s High and Low, and that was my first viewing of the film. I don’t give an A+ to a movie I have no interest in watching again. High and Low left me exhilarated enough to watch it again the second I finished it. A movie that can do that to me is either an A+ or I will fan it. I fan movies a lot, not all of them are A+, but movies I strongly admire.
I honestly don’t care that much about my 5 stars/rating. Don’t mind giving a 5 stars right after seeing an amazing movie for the first time. However, I don’t fan a movie right after; i’ll more wait for a couple of months and then, if I still think the same, I’ll fan it.
I usually grade films (A+,A,A-,B+,B,B-,C+,C,C-,D,F). But if I give a film 5 stars on this site, it means A- or higher, which doean’t necessarily mean I find a five star film to be some sacred symbol of perfection. 4 stars is B+. 3 stars is B or B-. 2 stars is C+ or C. 1 star is C-, D, or, F. Fairly simple, really. But grading is in the end a loose way of “making concrete” something in our feelings, reactions, and thoughts to a film, that can never alone really say anything about how we feel, react, or think about the film. That’s why a person would need to actually explain the reason for giving a grade to some degree or another, if they cared to do so, which (like me) they likely usually don’t.
I will frequently give out 5 stars in the heat of the moment and downgrade to 4 later. Like sex.
Who gave “Sex with Jerry Johnson” five stars?
I only give films 5 out of 5s. Movies are either perfect or irrelevant.
If a film expects me to give it five stars it better buy me dinner first.
i cannot believe this has become a topic. come on!
Where’s the social networking site where you get to rate sexual encounters on a scale of 5 stars?
They’d better have half stars on that one!
I rate my sexual encounter with Tila Tequila a 3.8 out of 10, because of the syphilis.
i don’t give a shit about anyone’s starring/fanning tendencies because i’m not a fucking self-righteous imbecile
Some people take a lot of care in how they rate, they put a lot of thought into their ratings and their systems.
Some people put very little thought into it and just click buttons.
Kind of comical to me to argue “It’s not a big deal nerds” on a mubi forum…
And I thought I was a purist.
Alex
In the last years it only happened me one time, with the Apu trilogy from S. Ray.
All the others “10’s” or “5’s” had a second watch or some months of thought.