Rick
Posts 6
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12/22/2005 4:41 PM
posted awhile ago
Discussion
So you wanna discuss things? Let's discuss them already!
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quint
Posts 94
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12/22/2005 6:43 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
I agree.
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gothere
Posts 39
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12/22/2005 10:05 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
Yes, so, here's this. What was the first film that struck you as being an artistic work, instead of or in addition to pure entertainment?
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spoutgirl
Posts 211
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12/23/2005 9:32 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
Bedknobs and Broomstcks
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paul
Posts 251
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12/23/2005 9:54 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
Ok, gothere. This flick isn't necessarily artistic, but I'll say I had
my first out of body kind of experience with this film. So, to me, it
pushed beyond entertainment. The Empire Strikes Back was
released the year tragedy struck my family. I was a little tike and
Luke Skywalker was the greatest human to walk the planet. So when Darth
Vader kicked Luke's butt and sent him running off to recuperate in a
tube of fluid, I was shocked. It was like somebody took a sledge hammer
to the way things were supposed to be. Luke was supposed to win. He had
the blue light saber, not the red one. So he should have won. But he
lost. It was tragic. But it became a way for me to identify with my own
tragedy. I became obsessed with the action figures for Empire. I
debated why Luke's khaki uniform was 10 times cooler than the black
Jedi outfit in Return of the Jedi. It's become one of those films I can watch whenever it's on and find something new each time.
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ingrid
Posts 84
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12/27/2005 11:20 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
I'm thinking probably Fantasia. I remember being very unsettled about it, watching it the first time when I was... 9? . But then I also remember, mid-movie, recalling a recording of Peter and the Wolf my mother played constantly for us when we were little. Once I was able to frame the movie that way, I could relax. "Oh This Is Art." I remember thinking it was kind of a grown-up thing, and being proud that my parents thought I might enjoy it, so then concentrating more than with most films. Thinking about thinking, if not actually thinking.
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quint
Posts 94
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12/28/2005 11:57 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
Good question. There was The Seventh Seal
that was the first film I saw that seemed completely devoted to an
aesthetic, but that was college. I'd have to say that the movie Sorcerer
was the first one I saw that felt like there was something more going
on than just action adventure. There was a fetishizing of the scenery
and a mythic quality. I'd have to agree with Paul though about the Star
Wars flicks. The first time one of those massive ships cruised over
head with this overwhelming scale, I thought I might pee my pants.
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gothere
Posts 39
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12/28/2005 10:17 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
So is it personal catharsis? Leaving your comfort zone? A singularity of vision? If a film yields an out of body experience, is it more art or enterainment? Should art encourage introspection, and entertainment allow for escape? Is a more entertaining film less of an artistic work? Does entertainment have to be comfortable? Does art have to be shocking?
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ingrid
Posts 84
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1/10/2006 7:03 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
Fabulous questions, gothere, but just for the record, what was your earliest filmasart experience?
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gothere
Posts 39
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1/13/2006 12:34 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Discussion
Yeah, well, right. Hell if I know. Films have touched me ever since I was young, as with music, and theater, painting, and other forms of expression. I like to draw. I guess somewhere along the way I became aware of Art with a capital A, and I suppose it was then that I began to look at film in that way. I had a crazy painter friend from high school who was raised by his crazy painter parents who probabaly introduced me to Film with a capital F. Or at least to think about it that way. On the other hand, I think it was this family that got me in to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas when I was underage (a big moment). And for a long while I tried hard to distinguish between art and Art, film and Film. Now I don't. I like some things, and not other things, and like some things sometimes and not other times, and don't waste any time feeling guilty about it. It's all very funny to me now. I think that art is all mixed up in a way that may be unique to our time. I mean, how much more post-modern can you get? But maybe everyone thinks that of their time. Somewhere between infotainment and The Gates and trouble at the NEA is a really good joke and I'm interested in the punchline. Tibor Kalman said that "good designers (and writers and artists) make trouble." So mostly I thought I'd stir the pot by asking, because it's a good question and I like good questions, but the truth is my memory sucks and I can't think of the first moment where I said to myself: "Hey, well, now, that's art. Unlike that trash I saw last week." But those are some of my favorite moments.
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