Why do we need to doubt a director’s integrity and second guess his choices of favorite films because they’re well known. Is it not okay to say your favorite film is The 400 Blows just to use an example. Don’t filmmakers deserve to be entitled to choose what they wish as their favorite films. I thought we were cinephiles here, not hipsters.
Conventional to me is having The Godfather, Raging Bull, Lawrence of Arabia, and La Dolce Vita on your list, not Salo, The Mirror, The Exterminating Angel, and L’Eclisse on your list. You’re going to tell me those films in and of themselves are conventional?
No, I’m not talking about the conventionality of the films, but of the conventionality of these films being on a list. Tarkovsky, Bunuel, and Antonioni are every bit as “canon” as Coppola, Lean, Scorsese, and Fellini. This not a negative thing! Like anybody else, I simply like lists that pleasantly surprise me. Haneke’s selection of Lancelot pleasantly surprised me. His other choices didn’t.
I’m not discouraging interest in obscure underground cinema. I’m just saying that if you truly love cinema and respect others who love cinema, you wouldn’t criticize someone’s list of favorite films for consisting of “well known” films. My point is respect each other’s tastes.
Renault, what’s the diff ‘tween cinephile and hipster? I’m neither, so I’m free to ask.
Perhaps Jerry, but the average American has heard of Coppola and Scorsese. That’s not the case with Bunuel, Tarkovsky, and Antonioni, so I’m not so sure it’s an entirely fair comparison.
A cinephile is a geek who genuinely loves cinema. Geek is not being used in a negative connotation here. A hipster is someone who relies on their family’s trust fund to live the Bohemian lifestyle in Williamsburg all through their 20s. Most of them have no passion for anything, they just want to live the life the life and their modus operandi is to denounce any artistic work that strikes them as being mildly mainstream just for the hell of it.
A cinephile is a geek who genuinely loves cinema.
“A cinephile is a redneck who genuinely loves cinema.”
Yes, I’m a redneck and my love of cinema has nothing to do with being a geek.
a cinephile seeks out challenging, provocative cinema
a hipster lets you know that s/he’s done so
Perhaps Brian
<Why such minimal support for Godard on Sight and Sound among directors? There’s a huge disparity between the number of directors and the number of critics who put films of his in their top 10. And please don’t retort that it’s because he’s a shitty filmmaker. I’d like a more intelligent opinion or response. Thank you.>
I don’t know about the Sight and Sound among directors but for example in ‘’To Each His Own Cinema’‘, the omnibus film about the 60th anniversary of Cannes’ festival, out of 33 shorts, 4 have been more or less homages to Godard (from filmmakers as different as Inarritu, Egoyan, Kar Wai and Cimino)…
Jerry:
Yes, it’s great if people list favorite films of theirs that aren’t conventionally included on lists, but as you plow through the thousands upon thousands of films that have been made throughout history you’ll eventually deplete yourself of options to include on lists if you’re sole motive is to be as idiosyncratic film. Eventually you’ll realize that one can come up for a reason to label any film too conventional. Choosing Touki Bouki and Yeelen would be criticized because those are two of the most famous sub-Saharan African films of all time. La Grande Bouffe wouldn’t suffice because it’s Marco Ferreri’s most well-known movie. Hmm, how about a Theo Angelopoulos film to include? Nope, he’s Greece’s most favorite director. Oh, wait, Tropical Malady! Nope, Weerasethakul is South East Asia’s most famous director. Oh, wait! Marketa Lazarova! Nope, anyone mildly familiar with Czech cinema knows that film. Hmm, Dillinger Is Dead. No, it’s on Criterion.
That’s why I think the whole notion of criticizing a list for being conventional can be ridiculous. Where do you cut the chord? Then again, I don’t really think of Dillinger Is Dead as a criterion film. Vivre sa vie and Red Desert, albeit fabulous films, were criterion films even before criterion announced them if you know what I mean, the same way La Notte’s a criterion film even though they’ve never actually released it.
@Renault2011 — ha ha! Williamsburg. It wasn’t hipster-central yet when I lived there over 12 years ago. Not that part I was in. Times change…
Nope, he’s Greece’s most favorite director.
He’s actually the favourite Greek director by critics’ standards, he’s hardly my country’s favourite director.
Ask 100 common people.
Spielberg is probably Greece’s favorite director.
^ Please limit Greece into the majority and only. I’m pretty sure Spielberg and Tarantino are also America’s favourite directors, so spare the criticism to the illiterates.
Jerry Johnson
Yes, Haneke’s is obviously conventional but that doesn’t mean conventional is always a minus nor that he is aware of what he’s experiencing makes him a worthwhile critic
Dimitris, you’re becoming more like me everyday. COME TO THE DARK SIDE!