“gummo is good”
This thread deserves some response because pretentiosness is almost as much a part of this site as insightful analysis and witty conversation. So, I’d say…on this forum, when I lamented the pointless use of the n word in an old comedy that I otherwise enjoyed and praised, I was told: “People who focus on something as tiny as that shouldn’t even be watching historic/cultural films. You’re jaded and narrow-minded. Take the DVD out and watch Dark Knight again, okay?”
The insinuation that my personal opinion differing from theirs makes me unworthy of appreciating classic films struck me as pretentious as well their equation of Dark Knight as being a kind of anathema to ‘true sophisticated film lovers’. And as to your friend, anyone who criticizes your opinion by saying “you obviously didn’t get” whatever it was they took from it is not only pretentious but strikingly immature.
Gummo. Oh boy. A friende tried to have me watch it one day. The Pain….
I’m the most pretentious person I know, so… I’ve rarely been on the receiving end of it.
Jay – To be completely honest, I enjoyed the Dark Knight. Unlike most people on this site, I am welcome to all films and all viewers. It’s insane to think that someone would criticize your opinion about that.
I don’t consider myself a cinephile at all, I just enjoy talking about movies. So when someone acts as if I didn’t “understand” the movie, I can only think “Why should you say what there is to understand?” Some of the people on these forums act as if they themselves are the director…
Not quite about a movie, but I once overheard these at the local campus theater (I’ll go further and name names: Cinestudio, on the Trinity campus in Hartford, possibly has the most pretentious audience members on the east coast) before a screening of Elevator to the Gallows:
“Are you ready for some culture?”
“Miles Davis was more than a musician, what he did was poetry. I don’t mean that figuratively.”
“But you see, Johnny Cash isn’t really country.”
I guess you would have had to have heard that entire girl’s conversation, but those were really obnoxious. I can’t believe her parents are paying 30 grand a year for that. If they only knew…
and to be honest, I’ve thought a lot of stuff I’ve never said.
I would say I’m a bit pretentious but I would hope never in a mean way. I know that everyone has their own tastes and no one is going to like everything I like. The only time I have trouble controlling myself is when I am dragged to the latest crap at the movie theatres and when we exit the theatre someone says I didn’t get it. Really I wasn’t aware Rush Hour 3 was so complex? Sorry but give me a break it is hard to stay quiet when people say stuff like that.
I guess I am guilty of a few times saying to someone that they just didn’t get it. But I don’t phrase it like that and it is purely due to their reasons for not liking (or liking) the film. Like when someone said they loved A Clockwork Orange because it is so cool how they go around killing and raping with no cares about the law. I responded in a frightened state that that wasn’t the point at all of the movie (it is one of my favorite films ever by the way). Is that pretentious?
rich uncle skeleton – hahaha “are you ready for some culture?” !!!
I once read about a critic saying that Zodiac was “a philosophy”.
“This thread deserves some response because pretentiousness is almost as much a part of this site as insightful analysis and witty conversation.”
Yes, this site is pockmarked with pretention all over. In my lesser moments, my bad days, I’ve been a snarky culprit with the best of them. I think for a lot of us, our passion for film overspills, and we become adamant, too fierce, and this reads badly. But to tell the truth, for all the crap that’s been said and unsaid, there’s an equal measure of honesty, insight, wisdom, deep intelligence, self-deprecation and willingness to admit our human failings, and that is what I love about The Auteurs. It’s community of talking heads with an ambition to make the site the place for film discussion. Whaddya gonna do? You can’t play the zealot without breaking a few heads : )
It’s not IMDB, that’s for sure.
“snarky culprit” That’s funny.:)
Well put, T. I do love this site and I agree that the good far outweighs the snarky
Whenever anyone calls a movie that comes out before the end of the year “The Best Movie of the Year!” Most specifically when I read it about a film released in January.
JP, that always makes me laugh. “The Best Reviewed Movie of the Year!” um its January 23rd.
And now ladies and Gentlemen I present to you….
The Pretentious Illiterate
(among other great jokes/impresssions)
“Good luck sitting through a Bergman film,Bergman is outdated, if you’re going to watch a Swedish Film just watch Let The Right One In.”
But see Rob if you responded “How can you not like Bergman?” would you be being pretentious? I truly don’t feel certain things that are considered pretentious should be considered pretentious. I would have said that response because Bergman is fantastic.
When I think pretentious I think of the scene from Manhattan but anything less than that I don’t consider pretentious.
Someone on this site once said that David O. Russell was a Wes Anderson rip-off and I was like, lol wat. And no, he/she couldn’t back it up. I thought it was a stupid remark. I get all kinds of film geek crazy when I think about it.
Nice point Drew.
If pretentious means “pretense characterized by presumption of dignity or importance; ostentatious”
then I’m relieved to find that I am not guilty, even if I do participate in the Auteurs forums.
I think perhaps a lot of foks who confess to pretension are likewise not really guilty.
Over-enthusiasm, to my mind, does not equate with pretentiousness.
But apart from that, I think the urge to be pretentious would come only from:
1. a state of being dissatisfied, insecure, or egotistical.
or
2. being disingenuous in order to support a failed argument
If you’re having a great time in the world of movies, and you are confident in your choices and tastes,
then I don’t know how pretentiousness even arises.
In other words, what would be the point of pretending? Where’s the payoff if you’re already happy?
Anyway, I have heard some pretentious remarks made in the defense of pictures
more often than in praise.
Best example: I told an acquaintance that I think Michael Moore is a failed filmmaker, ultimately,
because Moore’s frequent misrepresentations, and fast/loose handling of facts
erodes his credibility.
His response was: “Yes, but Moore’s credibility is in his PASSION.”
I think when people delve TOO DEEP into a character and a plot is pretentious. Or just acting like you’re better than someone because you saw a certain movie (and trust me, we’ve all done it…)
I consider myself a “film geek” and when that person talked to me about American Beauty that way, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Hazel, so much rage for such a pretty name. :-)
I’ve been told that pretty much all foreign films are the same. That tends to suck to hear, especially because, not only is it incredibly false, but it’s a terrible accusation against some of the greatest films known to man.
I also get very, very annoyed at people who say that Juno was unrealistic, simply because of the way people talk. No freaking way. It’s a movie, and people can talk the way they want to talk. It’s the emotions that speak, the absolute truth, hidden underneath those words that’s important. I hate when people talk about the lack of realism, when I could not tell you of a film that was completely realistic, as in, that had absolute realism. Maybe I’m crazy.
Savvy
Trust me Doctor I’m as pretentious as they come. I am dissatisfied, insecure, egotistical, and disingenuous… yep, I got it all.
other than that your an ok guy col. dax
Thanks Soybean, you’re an o.k. guy, too… (this feels all TV family values (cue the sad violins, and the studio audience going, “ahhhhh….”))
The auteurs is full of pretentious individuals.
Thank you Justin!
lol, you’re welcome!
Hazel Hills
“You obviously didn’t get the underlying meaning then. I interpreted a sort of “beauty in the breakdown” sort of thing that amidst the chaos of broken relationships and abusive fathers there is always something beautiful…"
A friend told me that after I told him I really didn’t care for American Beauty, and that I thought the messages were a bit mediocre.
What has someone said to you about a film that seemed a little pretentious?