It was inevitable that my first real post would be about movies. They have been my primary preoccupation (I'd say "obsession" but I'm not given to hyperbole) from a very young age. It wasn't always easy either. Everybody likes movies, or at least some movies, but relatively few people give them any thought beyond the immediate experience. You can drone on forever about sports or have passionate opinions about music and nobody thinks anything of it. However spend too much time discussing the movies and eventually you'll hear familiar patronizing words about "over-analyzing" or "thinking too much". What are you supposed to make of a fellow human being looking you straight in the eye and saying "I don't want to think, I just want to be entertained" as if the two were mutually exclusive.
Over the years I've made an effort to embrace every kind and every genre of film. Take a look at my embarrassingly huge personal collection and it'll back me up. I have preferences of course, but it's just a matter of keeping an open mind and not dismissing anything out of hand (although it is getting more and more difficult to defend the romantic comedy as a worthwhile genre). I have a particular prediliction for westerns and horror films but that's a subject for another day.
It's always a good idea, whether we're talking about movies or anything else, to free your mind of prejudices and preconceived notions. A film, like any story, does not have to adhere to a rigid structure. It can be driven by a complex plot or have no plot at all. The characters can be likeable and easy to sympathize with, or they can be complex and difficult people. The great (and occasionally pompous and alienating) French director Jean-Luc Godard admitted that a film does need a beginning, a middle and an end, "just not in that order". That's a good start.
You know, when I started writing this, I intended it to be a sort of guide to what I look for in a film and how I decide it's worth. I was going to go on about aethetics vs thematics, plot vs character etc, etc. Well, luckily for you, I'm not going to do that beacause, the fact is I have no real schematic approach to the cinema or any other art. First viewing is almost always about your emotional reaction and that's too subjective to be accurately measured or predicted. I do however have a few thoughts:
Film is a visual medium, not a literary one. There is an unfortunate tendency amongst film critics to ignore camera movement and composition in favour of dialogue and plot.
If you've only seen a movie on your phone, than you haven't actually seen that movie.
If you've only seen that movie edited for television and pan and scan, than you haven't actually seen that movie.
There's a whole world out there. Try to watch at least a few foreign films. Some of them are even fun! Also, with very rare exceptions dubbing sucks.
Actors are great, I love actors, but don't make them your only criteria for choosing, or not choosing, a film.
A slower pace is an attribute, not a weakness (or strength) .
Try to come to at least some understanding of what a director is and what they do.
Remember "entertaining" and "dumb" are not, necessarily, the same thing (although sometimes they can be).
Well, I'm not entirely satisfied with this post. I just started writing and hoped something coherent would come out of it. It might help to think of it as an intro to my next post which is going to be about the year in movies. After that I'll write about something else, I promise.
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