Has anyone ever taken a film class?

[ToucanSpam]

What kinds of movies did you watch? Did they have an impact on you?

I ask because I'm taking a Cinema class this year and I find it to be really interesting. It's pretty cool to watch these older movies and be exposed to pre-special-effects-with-computers movies and actually like them a lot. It definately has had an impact on my opinion of my own movie taste. Has it had that effect on anyone else?


If you haven't taken a film class, feel free to discuss an older movie that had an impact on you.

[Kid Presentable]

What kinds of movies did you watch? Did they have an impact on you?

I ask because I'm taking a Cinema class this year and I find it to be really interesting. It's pretty cool to watch these older movies and be exposed to pre-special-effects-with-computers movies and actually like them a lot. It definately has had an impact on my opinion of my own movie taste. Has it had that effect on anyone else?


If you haven't taken a film class, feel free to discuss an older movie that had an impact on you.

Watched Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Gone with the Wind, and this documentary about Peter Jackson called Forgotten Silver. I think it was Forgotten Silver.

Jackson details his fascination with an ostentatious Filmmaker in the 1920s-40s who was responsible for the world's greatest film or some shit.

I remember liking it, if anything.

[ToucanSpam]

I watched Citizen Kane Monday and I can't stop thinking about how awsome the movie was. It takes a good deal of concentration to understand what's going on and the meanings behind it...I don't think I got half of it.

Gone With the Wind, we have here on DVD. Maybe I will take it for a spin....I dunno.

[Kid Presentable]

I watched Citizen Kane Monday and I can't stop thinking about how awsome the movie was. It takes a good deal of concentration to understand what's going on and the meanings behind it...I don't think I got half of it.



Yeah it's deep. Welles was a dark motherfuck.

[ToucanSpam]

He didn't seem like a big fan of William Hearst either.

"Rosebud."


*giggles*

[Kid Presentable]

I admire Welles.

But the Streetfighter II animated movie is pretty good, too.

[mickill]

We just watched a lot of Jerry Bruckheimer-produced films. It was a good class.

[mickill]

Hey, there's a lot more going on in Top Gun than you think.

[Kid Presentable]

When they asked us to suggest a film to show, I offered 'Kingpin'.

[ToucanSpam]

Hey, there's a lot more going on in Top Gun than you think.
The Iceman/Maverick relationship is interesting.

[mickill]

We actually did just watch a bunch of the standards:

Casablanca
North By Northwest
The Maltese Falcon
Double Indemnity
Citizen Kane
City Lights
Modern Times

You know, crap like that. Oh, and Top Gun.

[Kid Presentable]

I watched 'The usual suspects' in a class at high school.

They called it 'activities' and everybody just sat around watching t.v.

Most of us used it to smoke shit.

Was Stephen Baldwin in that film?

[instigator7022]

I watched 'The usual suspects' in a class at high school.

They called it 'activities' and everybody just sat around watching t.v.

Most of us used it to smoke shit.

Was Stephen Baldwin in that film?


there was definitely A baldwin.. im not sure which one. hopefully it was the biodome baldwin

[Kid Presentable]

there was definitely A baldwin.. im not sure which one. hopefully it was the biodome baldwin

I think it was. Does he post here?

[instigator7022]

who knows!

[Kid Presentable]

who knows!

What do you mean!

[instigator7022]

i dont know!

[Kid Presentable]

I watched the Killing Fields at school. That was o.k.

[instigator7022]

I watched the Killing Fields at school. That was o.k.


my spanish teacher made us watch ALIVE once

[ToucanSpam]

my spanish teacher made us watch ALIVE once
good movie.

[mickill]

Yeah, Biodome Baldwin was in The Usual Suspects. The Usual Suspects is overrated poop, though.

I liked The Killing Fields, just not so much the ending with all the illicit tearjerker gayness courtesy of John Lennon's Imagine, which isn't the songs fault or anything...just yeah, come on, man.

[instigator7022]

good movie.


haha they were soccer players who ate eachother

whats better?

[Kid Presentable]

illicit tearjerker gayness.

That would be a great name for a film.

[instigator7022]

That would be a great name for a film.

i call it

[mickill]

That would be a great name for a film.
Yeah, it could be about a retarded man with AIDS and the uplifting clown that helped him through it. Starring Tom Hanks and Robin Williams.

[DandyFop]

I've taken more film classes than I can shake a boob at.

One of my best friends always talks about how much she hates Citizen Kane and it drives me nuts, because she has the attention span of 5 year old (she does this with a lot of great movies), and yet, she sung the praises of Malibu's Most Wanted and forced us to watch it...

Anyway, have they made you watch Birth of a Nation yet? That and CK at the two film class mainstays. And probably Buster Keaton's "The General". If you want a good Buster Keaton, I love College, it's hilarious. Nanook of the North is also a big thing, it was the "first" documentary made - chronicles an eskimo and his family - though, most of the film stock was destroyed in a fire and the film maker ended up "recreating" a lot of it, hah.

I also love to watch the films that were made with the use of pure brain power, no computer effects. I hate how much film depends on those nowadays.

[Kid Presentable]

Yeah, it could be about a retarded man with AIDS and the uplifting clown that helped him through it. Starring Tom Hanks and Robin Williams.

And Brian Denehy.

[instigator7022]

Yeah, it could be about a retarded man with AIDS and the uplifting clown that helped him through it. Starring Tom Hanks and Robin Williams.

ugh. robin williams is a furry beast he will be in no movie of mine

[Echewta]

Yea i took a film class to take naps in. Turns out I enjoyed watching the films.

The Graduate
Citizen Kane
Who Shot Liberty Valance

and some other movies I dont remember.

I kept pushing for the teacher to show Blazzing Saddles but he wouldn't. That movie broke so many barriers at the time, its not even funny. The barriers. The movie is funny.

[DandyFop]

I don't know, I think Birth of a Nation is interesting from the viewpoint of it was the first "epic" film and the technical mumbo jumbo being used for the first time, but I find it pretty boring.

[ToucanSpam]

There were points that were boring, but overall it was great.

Buster Keaton is also great. I prefer him over Chaplin and had wished we'd watch a Keaton film instead.
we are

[DandyFop]

Maybe it's because I've been forced to watch it ten billion times. Yes, Keaton is tha bessst.

[mickill]

Maybe it's because I've been forced to watch it ten billion times. Yes, Keaton is tha bessst.

Multiplicity? Michael Keaton is an average actor at best.

[ToucanSpam]

Which one?
He didn't say, just said there will be a Keaton film. Element of surprise???


OOOOOOOOOOOOo who knows?

[DandyFop]

Multiplicity? Michael Keaton is an average actor at best.

Batman and Beetlejuice man. Batman and Beetlejuice.

[ToucanSpam]

Batman and Beetlejuice man. Batman and Beetlejuice.
Fuck Beetlejuice, White Noise was better, and both were shit.

[mickill]

It just occurred to me that we actually did watch Beetlejuice in film class once.

[DandyFop]

Fuck Beetlejuice, White Noise was better, and both were shit.

You realize that when you try to sound hard you come off sounding like an even bigger homo?

[mickill]

No, it kinda worked. I was scared for a minute.

[Kid Presentable]

I watched 'Bored Housewife' at home once.

[TAL]

I've taken more film classes than I can shake a boob at.
Good thing you have two then.

[ToucanSpam]

You realize that when you try to sound hard you come off sounding like an even bigger homo?
I don't really care what you have to say, you're just another generic flamer who uses the same insults as everyone else.

[cosmo105]

took an awesome world cinema class a few years back. well, the films were awesome, but the prof was crap. made me appreciate european films and realize how stupid most american films are. europans want passion and conflict. americans want sex and violence. there's always a happy ending tied up with a pretty little bow and shit. and lots of explosions.

VIN DIESEL IN

SHIT GETS BLOWED UP

HALLE BERRY IN

HALLE BERRY TOTALLY SHOWS HER TITS

[Bob]

jacque le france in

you won't understand this, that's why it's genius

what is it sebastian? i'm arranging matches

i'm taking a film class, but it's a political science class too, it's all WWII era propaganda movies. most of them bore me to tears honestly. take triumph of the will, that famous nazi propaganda movie that's supposed to be the best/most effective propaganda movie ever made...swear to god, 30 minutes of fucking marching and military music right in the middle, it's awful. fine, heil hitler, whatever, just let me stop watching

grand illusion was kind of good though, i even saw it on TV the other day, the odds were incredible. we've also watched some russian movie about how the germans were evil in the 1400's, too, and an italian one, open city, about how the germans were still evil in 1943

[cosmo105]

i just watched that eddie izzard special the other night! <3!

[Bob]

my name is pierre, i am from paris...i have come to have sex with your family

[cosmo105]

*vroom*

Ciao.

[DroppinScience]

Yeah, I took a Film Studies course last year. It was an introductory course that went over the basics of film history (around the world).

On the one hand, there would be the classics (Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Searchers, The Conversation and others) that I've seen well before I took the class. Also some really good French movies (Breathless, Grand Illusion et al) that coincidentally enough, I also saw before I took the course.

We also watched "Birth of a Nation" and "Triumph of the Will", yes. BoaN was compelling and almost hilariously racist (the way they'd have the black people eat watermelon and go after white women... yup, Griffith sure did his homework on how blacks are), but far far too long. By watching "Triumph of the Will," I actually couldn't believe that this movie was the one that won over the German public to embrace fascism. I was so bored to tears, I certainly didn't learn shit about Hitler's ideology through watching THAT movie.

However, for every Casablanca, there'd be the most boring, pretentious crap that made watching paint dry seem action packed. Stuff that Bergman made (I swear to God, I HATE the movies he's done), they even had us sit though this awful awful autopsy movie that was disgusting and horribly shot. I'd often come home just angry that I was forced to sit through 2+ hours of nonsense. To me it looked like they were celebrating the film for the sheer fact that the director took the lens cap off and pointed the camera in the proper direction and we say: "LOOK! That is art!"

The actual lectures were very engaging (though they'd degenerate into incoherent ramblings from my American Marxist professor espousing how evil America is, etc. etc.), but every week's film would be hit and miss. Some were excellent, others were the biggest wastes of time ever.

However, we did watch "Videodrome" and that was good in a very fucked up way, so it wasn't all bad. (y)

[mickill]

Wow man. Everybody in that class must have thought of you as some total cinema virtuoso for having already seen pretty much every film in the class, huh? Tell us some more about how awesome you are, Brett Lambert.

[DroppinScience]

Wow man. Everybody in that class must have thought of you as some total cinema virtuoso for having already seen pretty much every film in the class, huh? Tell us some more about how awesome you are, Brett Lambert.

Oh yeah. They were ALL impressed that I saw "Top Gun" before I took the class. They were all like: "Wait a sec, that Goose guy is on ER?"

[ToucanSpam]

Goose had it coming.

Hollywood was an underrated character. One dimensional characters always are.

[kezz]

i did a class called 'literature into film', which was really interesting. we had to read the book/short story then watch the film and compare them. we did:

1984 [brilliant!]
rashamon [really good- they havent released it on dvd yet tho:( ]
blow up [meh, had to watch it for another class too]
shawshank redemption
rear window

for other classes we also had to watch thx 1138 & blue velvet [i dont recommend watching that at 9am on a tuesday morning. its a bit heavy] also did another class on australian film...

[Drederick Tatum]

and this documentary about Peter Jackson called Forgotten Silver. I think it was Forgotten Silver.

Jackson details his fascination with an ostentatious Filmmaker in the 1920s-40s who was responsible for the world's greatest film or some shit.

I remember liking it, if anything.

hahahahahahaha that whole documentary is a hoax.


Blade Runner. been imitated countless times.

[DandyFop]

Stuff that Bergman made (I swear to God, I HATE the movies he's done), they even had us sit though this awful awful autopsy movie that was disgusting and horribly shot.



Dude - yeah, The Seventh Seal? Amazing!! I haven't seen a ton of Bergman, but that movie...wow.

You want to talk about messed up, trying Fellini's 8 1/2. The most fucking incoherent movie ever, it drove me insane.

[BGirl]

Sooo many film classes... appreciation/theory and production

I remember at one point being totally saturated with films and the last thing I wanted to do outside of class with my friends was watch a movie.

One of the most memorable classes was the genre film class, which was usually about horror films but when I took the class we studied remakes. Like The Fly, Imitation of Life and The Man Who Knew Too Much. We watched the different versions of each film, comparing them and seeing that each reflected society at the time it was made. For example the early Fly was about fear of technology while the one made in the 80's was more about fear of intimacy. Fascinating (y)

[Kid Presentable]

hahahahahahaha that whole documentary is a hoax.



Shhhhhh, you'll ruin it for people who didn't already know that! :rolleyes:

[tulla]

i loved my film class, but mainly because i sat next to some dude who sang crime mob all through class.

we watched the graduate, blade runner, uhh...i can't remember any other ones.

[YoungRemy]

i was a film major at Hunter College. most of the courses focused on production and editing, but I did have a few good cinema studies courses.
my film 101 was a great course, we opened with Tom DiCillos "Living In Oblivion", a look into the indy film world.


we then looked at films from all over the world, Asian cinema included. then I took an entire course on Asian Cinema- Kurosawa, Wong Kar Wai, Ozu, and others...
then one of my favorite courses was an entire semester worth of studying Citizen Kane,we broke it down shot by shot, we looked at the history of cinema until that film came along(1941)...


originally Orson Welles wanted to do "Heart of Darkness" but it turned into a movie about a media mogul(much based on the life of William Randolph Hearst)



we saw some good documentaries as well...
"The Kid Stays in The Picture" is one doc i highly recommend, its about a Hollywood Producer...

[BGirl]

Citizen Kane,we broke it down shot by shot, we looked at the history of cinema until that film came along(1941)...

(y) one of my favorite exercises as well

[YoungRemy]

(y) one of my favorite exercises as well

did you study at Hunter as well?

[zorra_chiflada]

i did this "cult movie class" in high school. it was bascially an excuse for the teacher to show us R rated movies. we felt naughty.
i remember seeing texas chainsaw massacre (1 and 2) and evil dead.

[Kid Presentable]

Some kids at my school held down one of those brethren kids and forced him to wtach t.v(a mortal sin in his circles). I think he might have killed himself.

This other kid was in a car crash and had a neck brace, and people in his class gave him shit about being crippled. He blew his own head off in his bedroom at his parent's place.

[BGirl]

did you study at Hunter as well?

Ohio University. It's got a good film program (http://www.ohiou.edu/film/). They have only master's programs but I had film as a corollary (like a minor) so I took a bunch of classes in the film school as an undergrad. We didn't do a whole semester on Citizen Kane but we spent a lot of time on it, focusing a lot on how revolutionary it was in terms of visuals. Then later when my brother told me he had watched it (on his own) and didn't get what the big deal was, I was able to help him out. :)