@corlin

You have good taste in films. Alien is always in my top 20. The other two are deeply beloved, too.

I have a lot of film crit friends, including active profs, and my experience is the same. A thoughtful critic recognizes any artistic object as an invitation to a wide range of topics, and answers it as such.

@corlin @MLClark

I don't like Alien because I don't like jump-out-and-scare-you stuff. But Blade Runner and Road House are awesome.

Movies, just like books, talk differently to people. Isn't it wonderful that the world is filled with so many things to enjoy and learn about. We don't need to like or know everything. ☺️

@DianeH @corlin

Exactly! No shade for not liking a film.

*Definite* shade for trying to lecture someone else about why no one should like it.

I hope you always have films on hand that delight you, Diane!

@MLClark @corlin
Always watching movies! Before COVID my husband and I went to the movies about once a week. We haven't gotten back to doing that yet.

My youngest is back to it. He also goes to the theater about 6 or so times a year.

Many years ago when we went as a family the best part was discussing the movie afterwards. 🍿

@DianeH @MLClark

#Nostalgia

One of my fond memories of Portland OR. was when I first moved there in 91'. There was a VSH video store downtown. Run by film students from the art school. They were just your typical film snobs, and knew their stuff. In this store all the films were arranged by Director, then release date, not title, nor genre. It was glorious. If you did not rewind, you would be banned for life.

But all the foreign films.... Heaven.

@corlin @MLClark

Oh yes! Always rewind!

@corlin @DianeH

I worked at such a video store, though with DVDs. :)

We had large sections by country and a whole wall just for Criterion films, along with plenty of shelves by director (and one shelf for actors who directed), plus specialized themes as we saw fit.

The owner refused to stock Disney animated films.

We also had a large queer film section that I routinely had to explain wasn't the same as our softcore section, or the hentai with the anime in the basement.

Good times. :)

@DianeH @MLClark

This where I did a deep dive into Japanese, b Samurai films. Also French New wave, Russian propaganda films, American and French lesbian and dyke films. And of course the world wide Film noir movement. Don't forget the screwball comedies. Here is where I learned how to watch a movie, what to look for, staging, camera angles, lighting, sound, and cutting and great dialogue.

My general opinion is that many films today suck. Over use of CGI, and the lack of trust in the viewer.

@DianeH @MLClark
I agree about the jump scares.

But the art direction, the sets, the costumes, the creativity of the Alien itself. Was marvelous. The script wasn’t bad either. The camera work was a whole master class in itself.

@corlin @MLClark

If I could have kept from covering my eyes I may have noticed that. 😏

@BillyBones

I agree with the first line wholeheartedly. Re: the second line - that can especially happen when context isn't kept in mind.

Watching Soylent Green, for instance, was underwhelming for me - but in large part because I'd already lived through eras of SF built on the work its ending was doing.

Ditto with The Godfather. I'd seen parodies of every scene before I watched the film itself, so it *couldn't* hit emotionally itself - but I admired the craft all the same.

Relatedly--

@BillyBones

--that's why I can't watch a film in the middle of a hype cycle. I prefer my expectations to be low, so I can just enjoy a piece for what it is and not what the promo cycle wants it to be.

But I hear you especially when people go out of their way to criticize something you love. Silly people. They make life harder than it needs to be in so many ways, eh?

@MLClark Absobloodylutely (the slightly more polite version of my favourite example of my favourite word, tmesis. But I digress...)

I find it hard not to take it to heart when there's a film I absolutely adore & recommend to someone I thought shared the same tastes. It shouldn't, but I end up thinking "I thought we were on the same wavelength!"

Though I have to say, The Exorcist did that to me. Because I wasn't of that original generation & watched it on VHS, it was just silly to me by then.

@BillyBones

!!!!!!

You are the first other person I've ever met who knows the word "tmesis"! 😃 Hot damn, what a treat. I used to use the word in an online handle, I loved the concept so much.

And woo! Again, twinsies: I was also underwhelmed by The Exorcist. Watched it alone in the dark at 14, trying to get the full effect, but apparently a lifetime of atheism had declawed the concept. I greatly admired the film's pacing and trust in the audience to fill in off-screen narrative gaps, though.

@MLClark If you're going to impress anyone with an obscure English word, always make sure it's a writer. I'm smiling so much at that and almost didn't even use it! Twinsies indeed 💜

The Exorcist - that's just how it was for me! I'd already been scared by American Werewolf (and Alien), and yes, the cinematography & atmosphere (Tubular Bells for the win) were wonderful, but I think the effects (and YES Atheism!) let me down too. I half expected Jim Henson's name to be in the end credits!
🤜 🤛

@BillyBones

I would be honoured to play DeVito to your Arnie any day, BillyBones. 👌🏻🙂

@MLClark Oh that way around works too I suppose 🤣

And it's a deal! ❤️ 🍷

@BillyBones @MLClark I saw The Exorcist by accident when my parents were out of town and our sitter brought me and my brother to her house. This was 1979 and she had a copy on Betamax. She thought because I was Jewish it wouldn't scare me. It scared the shit out of me! I had dreams for weeks. Never saw that sitter again...

@BillyBones @MLClark

I think that classic movies did a lot of things first and now we see them all the time, so the classics seem less. What was done back then without the current technology was sometimes astounding, I think so anyway.

@DianeH I think that's a good point. That shows, I think, that it depends on the person and the personality. So while I just mentioned that I thought The Exorcist was silly, I can still happily sit and watch the original Planet Of The Apes and be drawn into it as much now as when I was a little boy. But to someone just visiting the Charlton Heston/Roddy McDowall version today, I'm sure that would be silly too.

@MLClark

@DianeH @BillyBones

Many early works still hold up beautifully, too, if folks grow up with a wide range of exposures. I always showed my nephews Chaplin films when they were very young, and there's something pure about a child riveted by such a film as if it were made yesterday. They would laugh and cry at The Kid and The Gold Rush without any contempt for silent films. That kneejerk judgment comes later, from lack of early exposure. (Personally, Sunrise [1927] still gets me every time.)

@MLClark @BillyBones

Sometimes what makes a movie great is who you watched it with.

@MLClark Oh I get that. If you saw my recent '20 movies' list you'll have seen that Duck Soup is one (of many) that I'll still watch over and over, and somewhat coincidentally that's because my late Grandad would put them on for us not long after first getting a VCR ❤️

@DianeH