My sister’s reaction:
“You’re psychotic!”
sometimes I am persuaded that my life is going to end in a burning mill, the roar of fire mingling with the clamour of a crowd of fanatical non-cinephile peasants…
@House: we’ll have blow up dildo DVD balloons, people dressing as their favorite characters from Godard movies and spanking each other in the street, and we’ll flaunt it for every movement the movement is worth! We’ll literally wag our cinematic genitals in the face of all the non-cinephile world that oppresses us to confront them with their own stereotypes, while re-inforcing them by acting absolutely decadent and crass! It’s important for the world!
—PolarisDiB
How can you like movies so slow, full and frontal nudity, rape and drugg addiction and on top of that subtitles!!…you need help man.
Comments from my uncle Iker…
this is a funny thread. lol. first, of course i’m still a cinekid, compared to you guys
but my friends call me “a freak” since they saw my dvds collection
(which.actually, most of them are still obvious films)
one of them said, “dude, why do you watch old films? what for? those films were made even before you were born. age has changed. they are dated”
and my mom said, “what’s so interesting about those [old] films you just watched? the black and white color looks really boring”
well, i’m glad to know MUBI
My father is game for anything. As I’ve fallen (risen?) into cinephilia, I’ve pulled him with me. The only difference is that I spend more time reading about film, browsing the web, etc., and I’m beginning to get a bit academic about it, chasing an undergrad degree at least, so he’s not as knowledgeable about the history, the theory, and such. If you could call me knowledgeable. He’ll just watch anything I throw in front of him, which is a treat.
My mother loves a good movie, including older and foreign films, but she has trouble with anything remotely experimental. I got her to watch Syndromes and a Century with my father and me — it was my first Weerasethakul experience, so I didn’t know better — and the meditative pacing and unclear narrative eventually drove her out of the room. I give her two thumbs up for trying, though.
My grandfather has the old-fashioned idea about education that it should lead you to a high-paying job. He was proud of himself for realizing that my academic interest in film studies could lead me to be a Hollywood exec. He was confused when I said that not only would my education and interest prove irrelevant—nay, antithetical to an executive’s job, but that being a Hollywood exec wouldn’t interest me in the least. He digs the fact that I’m into “old movies” though. He watches the Western channel a lot.
My girlfriend of two-plus years doesn’t share my interest, but says she loves that I have it…that it lights me up. It’s not tolerance, but respect. That’s all I can ask. I got her to watch Altman’s “Nashville,” and she admitted to not getting it. I thought that given her fondness for “Love Actually” I could get her into a more interesting multiple-narrative film, but I think I’ll have to accept that she’s not destined to be a cinephile…
My friends come in various flavors. A couple close friends from high school and one at college share the bug along with the healthy dose of open-mindedness that belongs with cinephilia…one of my high school buddies has been an excellent cinematheque-going partner these past weeks. (Along with my dad, who happily sat through a Monteiro film with me, bless his soul.) Other of my friends enjoy film but aren’t obsessed enough to break out of the Coen-Lynch-Nolan mode…not that there aren’t plenty of good films in that culture to assuage the hunger. Others of my friends—I don’t even bring it up. It’s “weird” and uninteresting to them.
In sum, I’m lucky to have a few people close to me in my life who get it—and share it. My fondest film-related wish, however, is not only to see Celine and Julie Go Boating on 35mm but to have my girlfriend next to me, entranced, converted.
My sister says about films that are subtitled: “It’s [Danish, Japanese, etc.], it’s not even a real movie.” So says someone who thinks Superbad and Good Luck Chuck are great commitments to cinema. Ugh.
Hey. I’ll defend Superbad.
Grrrrr….
I’m often bashed, ridiculed and dismissed simply due to loving world cinema.
JOKS@Yep same here. To be honest, I don’t know many people who are into or even understands artfilms. i can’t stand praises of Batman, Avatar, Matrix and other over-praised blockbuster films. So i try to not engage in film conversations with other people out of respect. But i met a very open-minded guy long time ago. I introduced him films that were beyond the mainstream boundary and since then, he got a taste for experimental and artfilms. He was also more into avant-garde films and music than i was. Sadly i lost contact with him when he moved back to Asia with his family. But i’m very glad that i met friends on the internet who share the same interest in art, both cinema and music.
My mom got me into movies, so my brother and sisters are into them also. Most people act really surprised that I am a movie addict, and know a little bit about what I have seen, They usually see me as a dork who knows very little about anything, cause of the way I behave around people, the idea of seeing a movie with subtitles seems to disturb more people than it should for some reason. For the most part people are just incredulous that I can decipher anything let alone a movie.
@Polaris DIB I agree with you. It’s good sometimes to watch mediocre or bad films. Some films are kind of enjoyable even though they not be top notch films such as Al Pacino in Scarface or Oliver Stone’s Alexander. Those are kind of epic films in the sense that you can see that a lot of money was spent making them. I think you mentioned on the previous page that you can gauge the quality of a film better based on the fact of comparing it to other films, right? That’s how I feel too. However, I must admit, most of the time these days, but not all of the time, do I go out out of my way to see films that get bad press or look bad from seeing the trailers for them in the theater.
I try to keep my distance with my addiction.
Mother: Enjoys a good Cary Grant, Gregory Peck or Hitchcock flick which is cool with me
Father: Doesnt care
Sister: Thinks all I watch is sad movies
Friends:… they all love video games more than anything. Every now and then I can convince them to check a movie out. Last was Cabinet of Dr Caligari which one hated cause “of the crappy set design” _
I have another friend who’s constructive review of a movie is that “its interesting”
i don’t have friends to turn to; tag mubi, you’re it!… my wife has had it up to here, until i tell her there’s something that i know she will enjoy; i’m trustworthy in her eyes and hardly ever miss the mark… she doesn’t understand watching the same film several times… i must be wearing her down in one respect though; on occassion, she see’s something i’ve missed the first time around, so i know she’s paying closer attention to the way she observes… my greatest fear down the road is, she threatens that if my care is left to her alone, she’ll lock me in my room with all my movies, my big screen TV and my remote control, less the batteries.
My addiction is generally well accepted. I’ve managed to bring some friends and family members to see cinema in a different way. I’m also the man to go when they have some doubt about a certain film whose title they can’t remember of for suggestions. In a way its a respectable addiction, though some of the films I see are misunderstood (I get that strange look in people’s eyes like they’re saying “what the hell is this guy thinking?”).
My friend asked me the other day, “What was with my case of yellow fever?”. Because I was talking about Wong Kar Wai.
Not like he cared. Or anyone really cares.
But my brother digs it. So that’s cool.
I’m glad my friends are all movie addicts! We spend a lot of time web conferencing about movie topics. It’s nice :-)
I am not surrounded by people who share my tastes. In the past I did to an extent, but never quite at the fanatic stage that I am.
I enjoy independent movies… I am not talking Miramax or Magnolia either… I am talking Steve Balderson, Perry Farrell, Lloyd Kaufman ;) , Chris Seaver, Lee Demarbe, Alan Ronald (if you have not seen Jesus Versus The Messiah… do it), also the folks involved with Mo-Freek (Angela Bettis and Kevin Ford, et al)… there are so many it would be impossible to list everyone.
I also watch some of the more mainstream movies and “off-the-beaten-path” type movies… Like Robert Altman, Wes Anderson, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Takashi Miike and others too numerous to mention. I mean, c’mon really?
What I do not understand, when I am ridiculed for my “taste”, is why is this person so content with a smaller variety of choices. Thats what it boils down to.
I recently mentioned Machete to some people that I work with and one person said “No one is going to go see that movie but you” and “Nobody is interested in your kind of movies” I am not kidding… these are the type of people I am surrounded by… They hadnt even heard of Machete or Robert Rodriguez, and when I listed off his other movies the only one that this person recognized was Spy Kids… I am not kidding.
I also get alot of flak for liking Quentin Tarantino. Here’s a quote “There is too much talking in his movies” no joke
When trying to watch a movie with other people, anything Black and White is right out… as is anything with subtitles… oh, and dont get me started on musicals
and that sucks. I was recently watching a Filipino Batman and Robin musical (no subtitles) and I had noone to share it with. This movie was awesome. Also,I was recently watching a double feature of Don the Bollywood classic and the Remake from 2006… again, noone cared.
I told my wife about the Casey Affleck film about Joaquin Phoenix, she just said “Oh yeah, where he tries to be a rapper?” … not the reaction I was looking for… I was looking for “Oh, heck yeah, lets go see it!!”
But then I am the man that bought Tetsuo: The Iron Man (a movie I dont even watch) on VHS specifically to get the short film Drum Struck that was included only on the VHS and not on the DVD… why isnt it on the DVD or anywhere else, who knows…. who cares. I once watched Plympton’s I Married a Strange Person with a group of people… they made me turn it off.
I should stop here… this is a touchy subject for me and one of the reasons that I love the Internet… it enables those who are outcasts in their surroundings to find a solace, a touchstone. I spend all my days on the internet looking up rare and hard to find films or classic must see films or just things that I had never heard of. This and other forums like it are a great place to find out about films. The people who surround me on a daily basis will never get it no matter how much I try. This doesnt even scratch the surface of my plight trying to convince people of art.. it is not limited to film, but also music and literature and other visual arts as well…
I watched Solaris the other day, and my roommate sat down and started watching it with me. I decided not to warn him what he was getting into when he asked “Is the whole thing in Russian? Why?” But then he shocked me by not only sitting through the whole movie, but saying that he really liked it!
My parents both really respect my passion, especially my dad. He’s a big fan of Bergman, Truffaut, Kurosawa, Hitchcock etc. – all the typical arthouse figures. When I watch something more obscure, or something that he hasn’t heard of, he’s usually a bit baffled. He walked in once when I was watching Woman in the Dunes and watched about half an hour. That was a little awkward, especially during the sex scene.
My sister is very condescending and refuses to watch any of my movies. My oldest brother Matt is a bibliophile rather than a cinephile, but we do like a lot of the same kind of films. One of his favorite movies is Vampyr, for example. Still, he always says that he would “like to watch” something like 8 1/2 or Sansho the Bailiff, but he rarely does. He reads lots of dense, intellectual books, so when watching a movie he prefers to kick back with something like Dirty Harry or James Bond. My brother Austin also respects my passion, but isn’t interested in it himself.
My friends mostly poke fun at me for watching subtitled and black-and-white movies. One of my friends thinks he knows everything about movies, but he limits himself to commercial American films. His favorite filmmakers are Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith. Still, he’s promised me that one of these days he will get around to watching 8 1/2.
None of my female friends are into film at all.. A few of my male friends are.. but they also want to sleep with me, so I pass on movie nights with them.. :) Guys will also try to use my love of film to pick me up.. “Ya know I love watching movies too.. We should catch a movie sometime..” Yeah, no thanks.. So in the end I watch movies by myself, but I’m just fine with that.
My parents are actually very understanding of my love of film.. They got why I was so excited about the 50% off Criterion sale.
And my coworkers make fun of me for it, but I make fun of the stupid movies (and sports) they watch so it’s all good..
DRUNKEN: Friends have surprised me in the past too. it’s a nice feeling, but it doesn’t happen often, at least not to me anyway. the majority of friends cannot stand ‘slow movies’ with long takes/pauses/silences etc. They hate films that are experimental in a structural sense too. so basically i just recommend genre films but occasionally i will sneak an artier variation of a genre film into the mix and get positive feedback. e.g Dead Man, The Funeral(1996) etc. You can onlyi try :-)
“One of my friends thinks he knows everything about movies, but he limits himself to commercial American films. "
this is typical of most people that believe they know ‘everything’ about movies in my experience.
I think I said this before but, I am not yet a film buff. I don’t keep it a secret, however, for example if I heard it come up in a conversation close to me, I would usually make some kind of response. If people ask what I like I would tell them “movies, music, art; i’m not into none of those”. I have some friends and a cousin who like movies but it has not always been that way.
I should warn you now, there is no great sob story behind this but i’d like to take a minute to tell you how I got to where I am today.
It began where I was born and raised. In those days I did not dream of having the access to many films. It was actually on the playground where I spent most of my days; chilling out and relaxing; shooting hoops with my friends after school. Not many people would watch movies and if they did it would either be blockbusters or b-movies. My parents liked to read but never had much time for watching films and so I didn’t see too many when I was young. One day, some kids who lived near me started to cause trouble. I was coming home from a friends house late one evening and I could tell they were up to no good. I don’t remember it too clearly but one of them came up to me with a menacing look. I got in one little fight and my mom got scared and said “you’re moving with your auntie and uncle in bel-air”.
@ JOKS, exactly. most of the “film buffs” i have had encounters with are only in to commercial American films and I eventually find myself talking to the air as their stare gets more and more distant.
other person: “Dude I have watched all of Adam Sandlers movies, even Spanglish”
Me: “Punch Drunk Love?”
other person: “Never heard of it.”
or even worse, there are those other ends of the coin where a “film snob” which I ahve been accused of, will dismiss a movie simply based on a prejudice of theirs…
Me: “Hey you should watch Be Kind, Rewind”
other person :“No, it has Jack Black in it thereby making it irrelevant”
Me: “…ok”
Two close friends tell me they have trouble understanding the way people judge and value films (as I do) and they do not really enjoy all of what I enjoy (one in particular hates Takeshi Kitano even though she’s never seen anything he’s done, and she refused to see Born on the Fourth of July and Collateral because they had Tom Cruise, even though she saw and enjoyed the eschewable Valkyrie). Despite all this, at least they saw and ultimately enjoyed my favorite film Light Sleeper. :)
I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said “fresh” and there were dice in the mirror… If anything, I can say that this cab was rare but I said “nah, forget it… Yo, home to Bel-air”!
You said it, Brady.
It usually goes something like this for me…
“Who do you watch so many Asian movies?”
My reply?
“Why do you watch so many Hollywood movies?”
Seriously. It’s those who watch Hollywood and nothing but Hollywood who are usually giving me a hard time because I like watching cinema from all over the world, or I’m watching stuff that’s too old in black & white, or I’m laughed at because I don’t mind reading subtitles. Well, all I have to say is, don’t blame me because your appreciation of cinema is incredibly limited due to your own inability to stray too far outside of your comfort zone. Living life with blinders on your eyes must be a whole lot of fun. But I digress.
“I like the Hollywood remake better because there’s no subtitles and it’s easier to understand.”
Sigh…
“This does change a little as you get older i must admit, but if it’s an obscure passion it isn’t easy. Just be thankful that cinema is quite popular and movie geeks are much easier to come by than those into egyptology or igneous rocks”
Hey, I have a major in Classics. People are always like “aww, cool!” when I tell them that. It’s basically an English degree (which I have a minor in), except it’s all people getting decapitated by spears and Romans conquoring the Earth and (yes, Classics is Egypt and the Near East and not just Greece and Rome) obscure Egyptian rituals from primary sources instead of prissy love stories about cloistered nanas in 19th century Warwickshire. It’s basically just English, but actually cool. What can I say? It’s “hip to be square.”
…I’m also doing a minor in World Cinema, so don’t freak out on me.
“My grandfather has the old-fashioned idea about education that it should lead you to a high-paying job.”
Actually, this is really a modern conception. It’s only been like that for 70 or so years.
House of Leaves
^ It’s that exact kind of societal pressure that forced me to marry a non-cinephile just to appear “normal”, despite telltale signs like going to the theater alone and subscribing to the 5 DVD plan with Netflix.
But I’m out now, and loving it! We need a parade.