Film Snobbery

[Good morning blues]

I wouldn't say I'm a film snob; I've really enjoyed all of the Jean-Luc Godard and Sergio Leone that I've seen, but I also like John Waters and John Carpenter. Basically, a movie needs to have a 'hook' to keep it watchable and interesting throughout. Movies like Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon don't do it for me because to me they're each just a long series of ridiculously long (and admittedly pretty) fight scenes that don't go anywhere and don't have any emotional quality. Artsy "concept" movies like The Cremaster Cycle and whatever that one where the guy stuck all the insects to editing tape is don't do it for me because they're just unwatchable - there's nothing happening, none of it means anything. Strangely, I do like Luis Bunuel films like Un Chien Andalou and Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie.

I guess what I'm saying is that there are a lot of levels that a film can appeal on, and those levels can be really base, like in your standard Hollywood fare, or they can be more intellectual. I tend to prefer the more challenging intellectual films, but the mindless ones can be fun, too.

 

[Saskwach]

Don't be a pretentious and patronising idiot. You failed to read my comment as I had intended; 'film snobs' don't actually seem to enjoy films. This often seems to be the case because they have a tendency to judge them based on 'the vision' of the director and not the actual content.

I think Stanley Kubrick's films are awful. Space Odyssey is one of the most boring things I have ever seen. It lacked subtlety, there was no emotion, the story was weak. The end sequence when he 'evolves' it was just a tedious use of the then available special effects.

Clockwork Orange, what an incomprehensible mess. Non believable storyline and outrageous characters. Totally boring and a waste of time and effort to watch it.

One of my favourite films is Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl. It's fun, exciting, engaging, you can watch it more than once. It's just an entertaining film.

I hate all these pseudo intellectual commentaries on life that are put into films. If these people were actually intelligent then they would write a book about it!

Pretentious? Me? I never even pretended to have watched most of the movies by these 'great' directors. I've seen FMJ by Kubrick, AI (half by Kubrick) and The Seven Samurai and that's it. My earlier post in this thread was about how much I love big bangs in my movies.
Patronising? I wasn't the one whose response to an innocent OP was dripping with veiled distaste. Your new post only shows exactly how much bile you were quietly directing at Hey Joe in the first place; I just called you on it.
As for your problems with Stanley Kubrick's movies, I really couldn't say one way or the other as I've already admitted I haven't watched them; but it should be noted that a writer I'd definitely class as an intellectual said one of the big themes of 2001 was a lack of emotionality, the process of distancing oneself from emotions. Don't ask me if that's true, but if it is then for the movie to lack emotion would mean SK succeeded with this 'vision' of his and successfully conveyed his meaning, which I would class as content. There was a message and you got it: you just concluded it was a failing when others claim it was the point.
As for your favourite movie...the content is what? Pirates, Johnny Depp playing a gay drunkard and sea battles? Seriously, I was willing to admit you had a valid point of view until then. Sure the movie is fun, engaging, blah blah blah - I loved it. But it's definitely not heavy on this content you speak of - a word as empty of meaning here as you've implied directorial 'vision' is.
Your last line is just silly. Books are the only medium for intelligent commentary? Tell us, in your infinite wisdom, do poems pass your test? Do plays make the cut?
Saying that film snobs don't enjoy films is preposterous; they wouldn't watch them otherwise. I suspect you simply don't like how much they analyse the movies they watch - something I'm not too fond of either, but I don't carry a chip on my shoulder about it. You've got no good reason; you just hate that they 'suck all the fun out of it'. Everything you've written is the ravings of one trying to explain why they just can't stand something.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

oh god.

I like films, but no amount of art is going to make a pile of crap any more appealing. I like the work of John Waters, The Cohens, most of Sam Raimi's that i've seen, Krubric except for eyes wide shut, but all i could tell you about them was that I enjoyed them. I don't like it when art gets in the way of the message (see Donny Darko)

Amen brother.

 

[Jobz]

I watch all kinds of movies, from action to romance to torture porn (Saw/Hostel) to art house pictures. I don't consider myself a film snob but I can appreciate any kind of movie, I can see the creativity in everything with few exceptions (Date Movie, Epic Movie, things like that). So I guess I'm kind of on the middle ground. I'm equally annoyed by people who can't appreciate artistic, slow moving films with character depth and proper plot construction, as I am by people who look down on me because I enjoy action films and slapstick comedy.

Why can't I like The Pianist and Rambo?

 

[OuroborosChoked]

I forgot this, but rather than adding it as an edit, I think it's worth posting on its own:

Favorite animation directors!

Makoto Shinkai - Everyone should check out his work. Seriously. This guy is incredible. On his eariler films, he basically did everything on his own except the voice acting. Everything. On his computer. And every frame is breathtaking. 5 Centimeters Per Second leaves me in awe. I only wish it was out on Blu Ray in the US. The art is so sharp, though... it basically looks HD anyway. Incredible stuff.

Isao Takahata - Grave of the Fireflies. Need I say more? He also wrote and directed both Only Yesterday and Pom Poko.

Miyazaki's good... but in my opinion, his films don't actually have a lot of weight to them. They're just entertainment pieces. He does solid work... there's just not a lot of depth there. That said, Spirited Away is very enjoyable and no, it's not the only one of his that I've seen.

 

[mr mcshiznit]

Well shaun of the dead rocks my socks...so freaken funny.

 

[axia777]

I am looking forward to the next Transformers movie, so I guess you can count me out of the "film snob" brigade. The Constructicons as Devastator are going to kick so much ass it is going to hurt my eyeballs.

I also like many movies like Spirited Away, the Seventh Samurai, Hero, Casablanca, Shaun of The Dead, Bubba Ho Tep, and the like. But I also like movies like Spider Man, The Rock, and Die Hard(all of them so there!). What am I as far as movies are concerned? Do I care?

 

[wewontdie11]

I'm not sure if you would class me as a film snob. I do look at the style of direction and quality of acting in films quite a bit, as opposed to most of my friends who rate a film by how many people are dismembered by the end credits, and I have seen a few foreign or more arty films. I do ultimately judge films by how much I enjoyed them as an experience so that probably detracts from any snobbery I have a bit.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I don't do snob well, but I know what I like.
If I said I loved Scarface, The Mask, Casablanca, almost every Clint Eastwood film ever made and probably a few things not appropriate for mention on a forum, would you view that as bad or good?

 

[zoozilla]

I tend to enjoy films that work both as a blockbuster movie and as a message movie.

The Dark Knight is probably the most recent (and one of the best) examples of this, but I also thought the horribly under-appreciated Children of Men was amazing.

I love that movie.

 

[axia777]

but I also thought the horribly under-appreciated Children of Men was amazing.

I loved that movie.

 

[gmer412]

pssh, film snobs. The best movie to come out in the past two years was Epic Movie. I mean, it was just SO EPIC!!!!!!

 

[Samirat]

Who the hell's not a Kurosawa fan? Not once in my life have I met anyone who didn't think "Seven Samurai" was an utter masterpiece. His other more prominent films, like Yojimbo, Ran, and Rashomon are also spectacular. I can no longer easily watch that Spaghetti Western, a Fistful of Dollars, having seen Yojimbo.

 

[the monopoly guy]

Bubba Ho-Tep was awesomepants!

Awesomepants indeed!
Also, this somewhat (if not very) off topic but is the Don Quixote movie any good?
And how the hell do you pronounce Quixote?

 

[Labyrinth]

And how the hell do you pronounce Quixote?

Kahwik-sote.

And on the not of A Clockwork Orange, I loved the film because I found the message very pointed, and fantastically executed. For anyone who didn't get the message, the main idea is that you cannot really have free will without having 'evil' or at least horrendous violence along side, as this is a fundamental part of human nature.

To my eye the artistic side of the film brought that out in an accurate and amusing manner. I found myself empathising with Alex DeLarge despite the horrors he perpetrated, due to both the manner the character was presented in, and the narration.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Will you accept movies by Zhang Yimou?

Borderline, I will say yes because of Shanghai Triad.

Shanghai Triad and not Raise the Red Lantern? I am shocked! Shocked and appalled!

I'm a film snob of cult, horror and action films. Fuck art house.

Some of the best films ever: The Wicker Man (1973), Death Race 2000 (1975), Vanishing Point (1971).

I thing there is room in film taxonomy for the genre, Great Trash. Death Race 2000 is trash, glorious trash. I would say that Rocky Horror Picture Show is also Great Trash, and maybe House of A Thousand Corpses as well. My definition of Great Trash is that it is a movie I would never defend but will always watch.

The fact that I will argue about film classification, the delimitations of genres, and whether what film qualifies for what genre may not make me a film snob, but it does make me a film geek. I'm sure some people would not consider my tastes refined enough to be a true film snob. I could not, on pain of death, find anything of interest in a Robert Altman film, for instance. And though I understand why Citizen Kane is a great film, it never fails to bore me into a stupor.

 

[santaandy]

I like a very eclectic variety of films. Some of my more artistic choices came from Eourpean Film class at university, the best class I ever took and the only one worth my time AND money. I love Run, Lola, Run. It is one of my favorite films, and if I could just get my hands on some of Tom Tykwer's other works, I'd be able to die happy. I hear the one about perfume is pretty good. I also saw some Almodovar, I like him. And anything with Penelope Cruz *in the original Spanish*. And French fimls are surprisingly good too, anything by Luc Besson (the original Nikita) or with Jean Reno (Wasabi). I also particularly like Asia Argento as an actress.

Asian film is pretty good too. I loved Raise the Red Lantern and am totally jonesing for Red Cliffs. Korean films are great, Tae Guk Gi was very sad, and Conduct Zero and Volcano High were hilarious. Really want to see JSA. Gotta say Ran and Seven Samurai were awesome, really looking forward to Samurai Trilogy.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

I have a friend whose taste in movies is nearly a polar opposite of mine, and I found out that we go at movies from opposite directions. For lack of a better way of putting it, she listens to the movies, for her it's all about the script and the visuals are secondary, while I watch movies, and am more likely to notice directorial technique, what the actors are doing rather than saying, and the visual organization of the movie. For instance, in Kurosawa's Ran, there are no close-ups. There might be a few upper-body shots but in three hours of film, there is not a single close-up that I could find.

I think this might be why two people can watch the same film and come away with totally different impressions of it, and why some people are BOOM!-lovers and some aren't.

Speaking of Kurosawa, people seem to think he's the alpha and omega of the samurai genre, but there are a lot of directors in his shadow who are just as good as he was. If you like Kurosawa's samurai films, check out the work of Kihachi Okamoto and Masaki Kobayashi. For more recent movies, check out Yoji Yamada's films.