Glemaud: If they aren’t cinephiles already, it’s only a matter of time before the dark side draws them in. ;)
Well they already have prior loves. My brother is a fashion designer, so he’s a fashionisto. My sister loves politics and making money. They’re too preoccupied to become cinephiles.
Dad: “Joseph you watch too many movies”
I’m pretty sure they think of it as a waste of time, but I guess they just don’t understand that this the only thing I’ve ever really been passionate about. I can feign interest & hold a conversation in just about anything. but when I’m talking about movies, that’s when I come alive like Julio in Spanish class. Other stuff just doesn’t interest me as much.
88Arterial: I sort of feel the same. There are a few things I’m passionate about, but most of the people I know don’t really know anything about them so if I talk about it, it’s mostly explaining.
it’s all about knowing your audience. I find that when I’m getting to know someone I usually ask that their favorite movie or what kind of movies they like. Actors or actresses? just so I can gauge what they like or who they like. Then I usually just talk about those. People like talking about the movies THEY like & I’m just happy talking about film in general. Plus knowing a person’s movie preferences usually tells me so much more about a person than their damn shoes.
I understand about explaining, one of my pet peeves is having to over-convince a person to watch a movie. People should just be open to what a movie can deliver or just watch the same damn movies the rest of their lives. I usually try to convince anyway because I think a person will like it, but sometimes I just give up & let the back-of-the-dvd writers do their job.
You’re right about preferences being able to show what a person’s like. Most people I’ve noticed are big on who’s in the movie rather than what it’s about. Could be the same thing a hundred times, but if so-and-so’s in it they’ll watch it no problem. But they may not even know who Scorsese is. :|
It just stinks that the people one’s around the most don’t love films as much.
None of my family understands my attraction to film or any art form really. They don’t understand the bond. Auteurs is my only connection to other people who get it…I’m hoping that college will bring more ppl like me.
The last time we had a family reunion, we all got drunk (enough to the point where we hadn’t realized that my uncle put ELO’s ‘Telephone Line’ on repeat and we listened to it 30 times in a row) and decided to have a night cap by watching a film/movie. Somehow the DVD of “Il Posto” got into my case for “The Last Waltz.” That ended the party.
^^that’s funny. but NEVER put a movie in the wrong case. Take Larry David’s advice & leave the dvd case on top of the dvd player, that way it never gets lost & the wrong movie never ends up in the wrong case.
“^^that’s funny. but NEVER put a movie in the wrong case. Take Larry David’s advice & leave the dvd case on top of the dvd player, that way it never gets lost & the wrong movie never ends up in the wrong case.”
Thats exactly what I always do…. its true: Great Minds Think Alike.
But this is a very complex issue that defines my relationship with my family so I don’t want to talk about it.
I’m lazy, I get drunk a lot, and I love film. It’s a terrible DVD trifecta.
When you get drunk, leave your dvds alone! don’t take your drunk aggression out on them, what did they ever do to you but offer hours upon hours of entertainment. Don’t get wasted & decide THAT’s the time to rearrange your movies chronologically. You sir, need help.
My family always supported me. When i met my wife she hadnt seen a movie in years. Now she loves Patrice Leconte films so much. I like leconte’s film but not to her level. I think when you decide to be filmmaker or a DP, the hardest part is the time you spent away from them, you feel torn but thats the eternal issue about doing your craft as as DP or Filmmaker or being a father.
They say If you love it so much why doncha marry it?
After I saw a bunch of movies that were not movies I had ever seen before in my life and realized that movies are friggin’ awesome, I sez to my mom I sez, “Mom, I think I’m going to become a filmmaker.”
She lit up and said, “Oooooo, I think you’re going to be a very good filmmaker.”
There are quite a lot of movies of mine she won’t watch, but my friends will. There’s a lot of movies my friends won’t watch, but she will. My sister for the most part distances herself from engaging too closely in it (she and her husband like to say, “We, unlike DiB, watch movies, not films,”) but she’s very kind about it and I love going to movies with her to see what she has to say as well. Sometimes I use my sister’s and my mother’s interests to help customers at work find things they like because they are both smart, intelligent people who want a good story and want believable characters and want good directing, they just would like it to be a good romantic comedy with characters you could see yourself falling in love with and technical know-how enough to make it not look like shit or be unbelievable… so getting their opinions on movies helps me sell the mainstream stuff that I just never get around to seeing myself (because it’s pretty much on the bottom of the list of what I want to get around to seeing).
Every relationship is different and that’s what makes them worth having. I for one would like a girlfriend who is open-minded about movies but not all that interested in cinema specifically, as I’d rather have a different relationship with my girlfriend than I would with the people I talk about movies all the time. Hell, since we’re dreaming here, I’d like a girlfriend who’s really into poetry, because I’m not enough into poetry but really appreciate really good poetry (and pretty much detest anything less than really good poetry) and I’d like for Mrs. Nonexistent Dream out there to share with me the range and scope of knowledge I have about cinema in poetry.
—PolarisDiB
Bump
Some quotes from those close to me:
“Movies are a waste of time. They don’t interest me.”
“I don’t understand how you can like these movies.”
“You lack diversity, you need to diversify.”
“What are you doing with your life?”
“You need to exercise more.”
“I wish you wouldn’t watch so many movies.”
“You need to stop watching so many films.”
“Film isn’t a job.”
“Film isn’t your job.”
“You need to figure out what you are really going to do with your life.”
“You need to study other stuff.”
“Why do you like cinema so much?”
“Watching films won’t get you anywhere.”
“You are uselessly pretentious.”
My boyfriend: “I know there are some movies we can talk through and giggle and cuddle in, and others we can’t. I guess this is another one of those ‘silent’ movies.”
My roommate: “Michael Haneke is a fool; the only conception in his output that comes close to matching his own vision and not one of his predecessors’ is the inequality between ….” Etc.
My sister on watching A.I.: “Well. It was strange. So I didn’t like that. But the ending was happy. So I did like that. And don’t try to make me watch that Japanese movie again. Gah. Subtitles.”
Me: :O
It turns out I’ve been watching every single movie that my dad has without me knowing it for ages. So now we have a mutual agreement thing going on where if one of us is watching a movie, the other will watch it too. It’s pretty awesome.
Christi2n: There isn’t a seperate person for each of their quotes is there? :O
They don’t get it. They are to political, and think all movies come out of Hollywood and have liberal views in support of the republicans.
@Pavel… I always find this viewpoint amusing. Yes, there are political filmmakers out there, but for the most part, distributors try to keep a balance when it comes to releases.
As for the conservative viewpoint that H’Wood is a hotbed of radicalism (they always fail to mention films like ‘Braveheart’, ‘The Incredibles’, and even ‘The Dark Knight’- films with at least a partial conservative message), I always cite two films:
exhibit A) ‘Forrest Gump’- a film hailed by conservative radio hosts (and therefore conservatives) as an affirmation of their political viewpoints and, more specifically, values… directed by liberally ideological Robert Zemeckis
exhibit B) ‘Million Dollar Baby’- a film reviled by conservative radio hosts (and therefore conservatives) as pro-euthenasia propaganda by the evil liberal entity known as Hollywood- directed by arch-conservative Clint Eastwood (a man who once said that if Michael Moore came to his door as he did with Charlton Heston, he wouldn’t think twice to shoot him)
It all depends on the person in my family; for the most past, my dad is staunchly against watching foreign films, and most black and white films (not to say that he will not watch them, but that it takes a long time of pressure before he’ll say yes). My sister is supportive of my purchasing most of the time, but she does not always watch the films with me, and she gets pissed when I talk about why I didn’t like a movie she liked (for instance, when I talk about the way a certain film she likes was made, she’ll say that she watches it for entertainment, to which I say that I am not entertained by something that is made shoddily).
My brother Chris will sometimes watch the movies I get, but more often than not, he’s on the computer; even if a put a movie on, he’ll wath it and be online at the same time. I don’t know so much about what my brother Jeremy feels.
Then you’ve got my mom, who is the most open about what I like, and she’ll defend me sometimes (even if her defense is more condescending than anything else). Sh will watch my movies sometimes, but when I get to choose the movie, she’ll often tell me “no foreign films,” because neither she nor anyone else wants to “read.” Annoying as hell…but she’s not against foreign films like my dad.
Basically, my family acknowledges my film passion, but they can get annoyed easily when I talk about why a film is good, and why a film they liked truly sucks.
Savvy
Christian sums it up pretty well.
@Christi2n
I have a few to add of my own
“You can’t just enjoy movies, can you?”
“You treat movies as if their your job”
“You obviously don’t want to be entertained”
(both of these in reference to my tastes)
My dad:
“You lack diversity, you need to diversify.”
“You need to exercise more.”
Both my mom & dad:
“I wish you wouldn’t watch so many movies.”
“You need to study other stuff.”
My mom:
“Film isn’t a job.”
“Film isn’t your job.”
All the rest are by different people.
@Johnny DuBiel
Nice additions, I’ve heard the entertained/entertainment line ad infinitum. Haha, as with the others.
My sympathies Christi2n. [piss-poor Heston impersonation] When will people understand that film is LIFE?!?!
Christi2n, that suuuucks. I’ve heard a few of those things, but it seems that now my family has grown substantially more tolerant of my movie habits, unless I want them to watch a film with me that they haven’t seen…
Savvy
Glemaud
My mom goes to the New York Public Library and rents films on a weekly basis. My brother has probably seen every Allen and Hitchcock film. My sister watches TCM almost as much as she watches MSNBC. My aunt is a huge American Classic film aficianado.
My family aren’t cinephiles, but they do love them some film.