Films of old for the new.
And here comes a list of the old classic films that every film student will implore you to see.
There is the scene in The Rules of Attraction where the POMO film student is reeling off his love about cinema, and speaking about “Man and A Movie Camera (MAMC).” Forget the disaffected artiste chic pretending to be in on the know; this is a moment that so encapsulates the outward persona of a film student, that even if it is a ultimately false moment due to the fact the guy is trying to score, it’s true to the spirit of a film kid.
Being a film student is a rush. The film business is at best a lottery; the making of film can be, at its best, an ultimate act of human expression and art. Combining the two of these with their best parts creates a lore that is able to include art, mythology, business savvy, guts, determination and everything good about humanity. It’s hard not to be moved when in the process because in the program, one comes to believe that film is the ultimate achievement of mankind… it’s the one media that can speak to us in two senses and in a set period of time. Being in film school allows a person to be subjected (en mass, I must note) to all of the great works of the history: you study, discuss, philosophize and illuminate the medium.
For anyone who truly cares about film “Man and Movie Camera” is an artistic wonder, it’s a work of a person capturing the real world with little tricks or emotional approachability, it’s just life on film, just a bit surreal, it’s not Dada esque in it’s minimalism, because there is sense to the approach meant for the mass and not in abstract. You don’t have to be a film student to enjoy MAMC, because if you get the artists purpose, you will understand what the film is about… though it helps if you do care about film… or you are high.
The loser film guy in Rules of Attraction (I call him a loser because he elicits porn references when making a amateur sex film) speaks about the film like a religious zealot, because it’s something that he has been taught to appreciate, and in the moment of seeing that film – likely for the first and last time in a recent day – wants to share what he sees as beauty. It took me years to figure out that this wasn’t how people look at film, and even if they do, it’s not what they want to hear at parties.
But that’s who and where you are as a film student. It’s all encompassing and empowering… you feel part of a special world and clique. I still do this when it comes to Springsteen, but if I have learned anything from life in film school is that it’s not about film, it’s about finding your voice. That’s what film school is supposed to help an artist do… containing the didactic impulses created in the process is the great trick for social viability.
I don’t know if it’s that my or any of my fellow film students opinion that may be tarnished to do a air of self-righteousness about the subject, but I know that when I recommend something to someone, I come with an almost preset verbal warning of: “I think I’m more informed that you on this, but I think you will like this.” I feel a similar way on most opinions, but at the same time, I know now that if someone brought up MAMC, I would dismiss it unless they were one of my three best friends or they watched it with me. I know this because of The Wire… it’s the best show I have ever seen, but it’s something that has to find you…
It’s a little bit of the boy who cried wolf, it’s also about akin to the lesser known fable of the room mate who claimed his farts smelled worse than any one else. Sure, they may be right 3 out of 10 times, but when it comes to the other 7, it’s just a matter of it you needed to experience it at all.
All that said. I think I have learned my lesson. I don’t recommend Rules of the Game unless the person wants to learn about cinema.
I’m not going to suggest seeing Children of Men when a 45 year old white woman is going to see “Stomp the Yard.” (I had to do this week, and it damn near killed me)
Ten films from before 1975 that are really worth seeing, not as a cinema, history, or elitist, these films are great films, regardless of date, color, or year of production.
10. Some like it Hot – For anyone who is a fan of Arrested Development… this is a film that matches the mad cap juggling of multiple scenarios, each the more zany and ridiculous, and has Marylyn Monroe in her best role as an actor. A lot of old timers call this the best comedy of all time. It’s kind of hard to say that straight faced when Top Secret, Airplane, Austin Powers, and Caddyshack have been made since, but it’s one of the most complete movies that is funny ever made.
9. Tom Jones – The book adaptation of a book that few people ever could actually read. In the whole of the 900 pages, there is a great, funny, and deep tale about class, sex, and growing up… but for all of the brilliance of the book, it’s still 900 pages, and who wants to read that much about a male slut and his humorous misadventures. In a two hour movie that winks to the nature of its adaptation, it’s a stuffy olde English piece that feels like a modern comedy… they know where the laughs are, and they treat the joy of the book as a well… joy. As far as literary adaptations go, few are as fun as this one.
8. Chinatown – It’s the only film post 1970 on this list, but now, 30 years on, it’s falling in the grounds of criminally underappreciated. If you think “The Departed” is a great film, don’t just watch “Mean Streets” or “Goodfellas” again. See this. Scorsese may be better than Polanski on the whole, but he never did anything better than Chinatown.
7. To Kill a Mockingbird – Just to see the model from which all boomers thought a father should be. Then go ahead and watch. It’s a capsule of America that showed what we were, and how we overcame it, with belief in the spirit of our fellow man. Then ask your parent why they supported the second Iraq war, if they believe in Atticus defending a soul trapped by racial stereotypes, why did they think any good would come from this. A great deal of fun with Nam vets, as well.
6. The Searchers --- Probably the most difficult film on this list to watch. It’s a little dated, the matte shots are borderline amateur compared even with youtube works by 14 year olds. The film takes it’s time getting to it in almost a painful fashion, and while John Wayne is at his iconic best, he forces his son upon us in one of the worst acting roles ever (he’s the fat trumpet boy). There are a lot of little things that make this movie what it is both good and bad. The Searchers is the film that inspired Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, and Lucas, and you can see the touchstones back to this film in their works (including Taxi Driver, which Paul Schraeder has called a direct adaptation). And then there is the last shot, one of the most ambiguous and difficult shots ever to end a film. What served as rouge filmmaking in the late 1950’s, filled with antiheroes, cultural murkiness, and right for the wrong reasons morality. If this summary is baffling, well, like I said, this film is difficult.
5. Seven Samurai. Convincing a group of friends to watch a 3 hour film made in a foreign language, from the 1950’s, and in black and white… it’s a hard sell. Especially since the first few reels have egregious overacting on the extras part. Getting past that, Seven Samurai is one of the best action movies ever made. Once you get beyond the language barrier and social differences, it’s about the time in the movie when the plot enters the second act, and then it’s just awesome. Like Die Hard with swords awesome.
4. North By Northwest – Pro: Cary Grant. James Mason. Two of the best voices (as in how they spoke) in history. It’s one of the greatest adventure films of all time, it’s paced wonderfully, it’s genuinely funny, and the atmosphere is top notch… aside from the lack of mobiles and model years, this doesn’t need much adjustment to feel modern.
3. His Girl Friday -- I showed this to Steaze tonight. Pitching it to him, I said is a 90 minute film with 3 hours of dialogue. It’s over the top, it’s hilarious, it’s true, it’s one of those films where the old timers say “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore,” and you know that while they could, a newer version wouldn’t be nearly as good.
It’s filled with double logic worthy of Shwartzwelder, with lines like
Walter Burns: What were you when you came here five years ago - a little college girl from a school of journalism. I took a doll-faced hick...
Hildy Johnson: Well, you wouldn't take me if I hadn't been doll-faced.
Walter Burns: Well, why should I? I thought it would be a novelty to have a face around here a man could look at without shuddering.
2. Brief Encounter – The best short term love story ever made. While the time and place dates it as a work, where and when it was made is meaningless to the potency. It’s about the right love at the wrong time.
1. It Happened One Night ---. It’s got everything that a romantic comedy should have, strong leads working with worn in yet likeable archetypes, a solid courting disguised as animosity, a setting where they have to remain together (this time it’s a road trip), the guy showing the girl the ropes, the girl occasionally doing him one better, ultimately settling into man and woman roles and falling for each other. Made in 1936, it’s never been topped, even if it’s been redone, remade, and ripped off countless times.
Everything happens at just the right moment… and it’s got Clark Gable. There is a reason his friends called him King.
That and it has this line:
Alexander: Oh, er, do you mind if I ask you a question, frankly? Do you love my daughter?
Peter: Any guy that'd fall in love with your daughter ought to have his head examined.
Alexander: Now that's an evasion!
Peter: She picked herself a perfect running mate -- King Westley -- the pill of the century! What she needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her once a day, whether it's coming to her or not. If you had half the brains you're supposed to have, you'd done it yourself, long ago.
Alexander: Do you love her?
Peter: A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof with her without going nutty! She's my idea of nothing!
Alexander: I asked you a simple question! Do you love her?
Peter: YES!! But don't hold that against me, I'm a little screwy myself!
Yeah, sometimes they can’t make em like they used to. The best line in the movie would be an outrage. Link here for a full take from Dave circa 2001 Enjoy.
There is the scene in The Rules of Attraction where the POMO film student is reeling off his love about cinema, and speaking about “Man and A Movie Camera (MAMC).” Forget the disaffected artiste chic pretending to be in on the know; this is a moment that so encapsulates the outward persona of a film student, that even if it is a ultimately false moment due to the fact the guy is trying to score, it’s true to the spirit of a film kid.
Being a film student is a rush. The film business is at best a lottery; the making of film can be, at its best, an ultimate act of human expression and art. Combining the two of these with their best parts creates a lore that is able to include art, mythology, business savvy, guts, determination and everything good about humanity. It’s hard not to be moved when in the process because in the program, one comes to believe that film is the ultimate achievement of mankind… it’s the one media that can speak to us in two senses and in a set period of time. Being in film school allows a person to be subjected (en mass, I must note) to all of the great works of the history: you study, discuss, philosophize and illuminate the medium.
For anyone who truly cares about film “Man and Movie Camera” is an artistic wonder, it’s a work of a person capturing the real world with little tricks or emotional approachability, it’s just life on film, just a bit surreal, it’s not Dada esque in it’s minimalism, because there is sense to the approach meant for the mass and not in abstract. You don’t have to be a film student to enjoy MAMC, because if you get the artists purpose, you will understand what the film is about… though it helps if you do care about film… or you are high.
The loser film guy in Rules of Attraction (I call him a loser because he elicits porn references when making a amateur sex film) speaks about the film like a religious zealot, because it’s something that he has been taught to appreciate, and in the moment of seeing that film – likely for the first and last time in a recent day – wants to share what he sees as beauty. It took me years to figure out that this wasn’t how people look at film, and even if they do, it’s not what they want to hear at parties.
But that’s who and where you are as a film student. It’s all encompassing and empowering… you feel part of a special world and clique. I still do this when it comes to Springsteen, but if I have learned anything from life in film school is that it’s not about film, it’s about finding your voice. That’s what film school is supposed to help an artist do… containing the didactic impulses created in the process is the great trick for social viability.
I don’t know if it’s that my or any of my fellow film students opinion that may be tarnished to do a air of self-righteousness about the subject, but I know that when I recommend something to someone, I come with an almost preset verbal warning of: “I think I’m more informed that you on this, but I think you will like this.” I feel a similar way on most opinions, but at the same time, I know now that if someone brought up MAMC, I would dismiss it unless they were one of my three best friends or they watched it with me. I know this because of The Wire… it’s the best show I have ever seen, but it’s something that has to find you…
It’s a little bit of the boy who cried wolf, it’s also about akin to the lesser known fable of the room mate who claimed his farts smelled worse than any one else. Sure, they may be right 3 out of 10 times, but when it comes to the other 7, it’s just a matter of it you needed to experience it at all.
All that said. I think I have learned my lesson. I don’t recommend Rules of the Game unless the person wants to learn about cinema.
I’m not going to suggest seeing Children of Men when a 45 year old white woman is going to see “Stomp the Yard.” (I had to do this week, and it damn near killed me)
Ten films from before 1975 that are really worth seeing, not as a cinema, history, or elitist, these films are great films, regardless of date, color, or year of production.
10. Some like it Hot – For anyone who is a fan of Arrested Development… this is a film that matches the mad cap juggling of multiple scenarios, each the more zany and ridiculous, and has Marylyn Monroe in her best role as an actor. A lot of old timers call this the best comedy of all time. It’s kind of hard to say that straight faced when Top Secret, Airplane, Austin Powers, and Caddyshack have been made since, but it’s one of the most complete movies that is funny ever made.
9. Tom Jones – The book adaptation of a book that few people ever could actually read. In the whole of the 900 pages, there is a great, funny, and deep tale about class, sex, and growing up… but for all of the brilliance of the book, it’s still 900 pages, and who wants to read that much about a male slut and his humorous misadventures. In a two hour movie that winks to the nature of its adaptation, it’s a stuffy olde English piece that feels like a modern comedy… they know where the laughs are, and they treat the joy of the book as a well… joy. As far as literary adaptations go, few are as fun as this one.
8. Chinatown – It’s the only film post 1970 on this list, but now, 30 years on, it’s falling in the grounds of criminally underappreciated. If you think “The Departed” is a great film, don’t just watch “Mean Streets” or “Goodfellas” again. See this. Scorsese may be better than Polanski on the whole, but he never did anything better than Chinatown.
7. To Kill a Mockingbird – Just to see the model from which all boomers thought a father should be. Then go ahead and watch. It’s a capsule of America that showed what we were, and how we overcame it, with belief in the spirit of our fellow man. Then ask your parent why they supported the second Iraq war, if they believe in Atticus defending a soul trapped by racial stereotypes, why did they think any good would come from this. A great deal of fun with Nam vets, as well.
6. The Searchers --- Probably the most difficult film on this list to watch. It’s a little dated, the matte shots are borderline amateur compared even with youtube works by 14 year olds. The film takes it’s time getting to it in almost a painful fashion, and while John Wayne is at his iconic best, he forces his son upon us in one of the worst acting roles ever (he’s the fat trumpet boy). There are a lot of little things that make this movie what it is both good and bad. The Searchers is the film that inspired Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, and Lucas, and you can see the touchstones back to this film in their works (including Taxi Driver, which Paul Schraeder has called a direct adaptation). And then there is the last shot, one of the most ambiguous and difficult shots ever to end a film. What served as rouge filmmaking in the late 1950’s, filled with antiheroes, cultural murkiness, and right for the wrong reasons morality. If this summary is baffling, well, like I said, this film is difficult.
5. Seven Samurai. Convincing a group of friends to watch a 3 hour film made in a foreign language, from the 1950’s, and in black and white… it’s a hard sell. Especially since the first few reels have egregious overacting on the extras part. Getting past that, Seven Samurai is one of the best action movies ever made. Once you get beyond the language barrier and social differences, it’s about the time in the movie when the plot enters the second act, and then it’s just awesome. Like Die Hard with swords awesome.
4. North By Northwest – Pro: Cary Grant. James Mason. Two of the best voices (as in how they spoke) in history. It’s one of the greatest adventure films of all time, it’s paced wonderfully, it’s genuinely funny, and the atmosphere is top notch… aside from the lack of mobiles and model years, this doesn’t need much adjustment to feel modern.
3. His Girl Friday -- I showed this to Steaze tonight. Pitching it to him, I said is a 90 minute film with 3 hours of dialogue. It’s over the top, it’s hilarious, it’s true, it’s one of those films where the old timers say “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore,” and you know that while they could, a newer version wouldn’t be nearly as good.
It’s filled with double logic worthy of Shwartzwelder, with lines like
Walter Burns: What were you when you came here five years ago - a little college girl from a school of journalism. I took a doll-faced hick...
Hildy Johnson: Well, you wouldn't take me if I hadn't been doll-faced.
Walter Burns: Well, why should I? I thought it would be a novelty to have a face around here a man could look at without shuddering.
2. Brief Encounter – The best short term love story ever made. While the time and place dates it as a work, where and when it was made is meaningless to the potency. It’s about the right love at the wrong time.
1. It Happened One Night ---. It’s got everything that a romantic comedy should have, strong leads working with worn in yet likeable archetypes, a solid courting disguised as animosity, a setting where they have to remain together (this time it’s a road trip), the guy showing the girl the ropes, the girl occasionally doing him one better, ultimately settling into man and woman roles and falling for each other. Made in 1936, it’s never been topped, even if it’s been redone, remade, and ripped off countless times.
Everything happens at just the right moment… and it’s got Clark Gable. There is a reason his friends called him King.
That and it has this line:
Alexander: Oh, er, do you mind if I ask you a question, frankly? Do you love my daughter?
Peter: Any guy that'd fall in love with your daughter ought to have his head examined.
Alexander: Now that's an evasion!
Peter: She picked herself a perfect running mate -- King Westley -- the pill of the century! What she needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her once a day, whether it's coming to her or not. If you had half the brains you're supposed to have, you'd done it yourself, long ago.
Alexander: Do you love her?
Peter: A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof with her without going nutty! She's my idea of nothing!
Alexander: I asked you a simple question! Do you love her?
Peter: YES!! But don't hold that against me, I'm a little screwy myself!
Yeah, sometimes they can’t make em like they used to. The best line in the movie would be an outrage. Link here for a full take from Dave circa 2001 Enjoy.
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