How do we discover movies?

[Ash Ketchum]

In the “Should I sell my DVD collection ASAP?” thread over in the DVD Talk forum, I defended VHS as a viable medium for watching movies and encountered some incredulous responses. I pointed out that it was a key medium for me for discovering previously unseen movies and genres and I wondered how people could discover new things if they limited their viewing to titles that are only on DVD or only on Blu-ray.

All right, I’ll admit that there’s enough on DVD these days to keep young movie buffs busy, but I still wonder how people explore the full scope and history of movies and genres in the era of DVD and Blu-ray and Hi-Def and the Internet. The attitude I seemed to pick up from that thread was, "if it’s not pristine, I don’t want to watch it." Which strikes me as sacrilegious, since I cut my teeth as a film buff in the pre-cable, pre-VCR era by spending time in grindhouses and revival theaters watching battered prints of movies from all over the world and in front of a portable b&w TV watching movies in full-frame, cut to fit two-hour time slots with frequent commercial breaks. And in the ’90s, it was bootleg VHS tapes of certain foreign genre films bought from a network of collector-dealers at a time when these genres (e.g. old-school kung fu) were rarely available in legit editions.

During all those periods, the exhilaration of the thrill of discovery trumped all other considerations. When I watched something on TV pre-VCR, I paid sharp attention and took copious notes, not knowing when I’d get to see it again. And there was the human element in play, because you ran into like-minded souls at those theaters and VHS shops and shared what you knew with them and got recommendations in return. The point is that those worn prints, TV viewings, and bootleg VHS were all an integral part of my film education and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

Today, I follow new obsessions and discover things on DVD that I’d never seen before and am quite happy that they’re available, including many Japanese films from the 1970s and ’80s that didn’t get shown at the Japanese film festivals I went to back then and were simply not available in any other way. For instance, I never saw the Sister Streetfighter films back in the day, but now I have all four in a box set. So I’m not in any way denigrating DVD as a delivery medium. It’s just that, for me, it’s been a small part of the overall spectrum of my movie experience.

So how do young film buffs today experience that thrill of discovery? How do you follow your obsessions? How do you know what to look for on DVD? Or from internet sources? Do you find them on specialty cable channels? Do you even watch Turner Classic Movies? How does the curious young film buff explore the dark corners, the nooks and crannies where previously undiscovered material lurks? Where does the Eurocult fan go? Or is there simply enough stuff now on DVD and cable that you’re overwhelmed and don’t feel a need to go beyond those outlets?

Thanks.

[Rypro 525]

mostly i discover movies via here

[RichC2]

So how do young film buffs today experience that thrill of discovery? How do you follow your obsessions? How do you know what to look for on DVD? Or from internet sources? Do you find them on specialty cable channels? Do you even watch Turner Classic Movies? How does the curious young film buff explore the dark corners, the nooks and crannies where previously undiscovered material lurks? Where does the Eurocult fan go? Or is there simply enough stuff now on DVD and cable that you’re overwhelmed and don’t feel a need to go beyond those outlets?

Turner Classic Movies is hit and miss with me as most of the movies shown on there are the better known feature films, and they are getting more and more current everyday. The big tricks these days are finding mom and pop videostores that rent out movies off the beaten path, I remember one having a full blown "Cult" section that even featured locally made productions and another section just for outlandish Asian films, as well as an art section.

These days though, stuff is so actively blogged, reviewed and criticized you end up finding out more and more about a movie before you ever even see it. My personal choice for finding older movies is bootlegs on the internet. Legalities aside (many are out of print VHS & LD -> XviD conversions) it's about the only way I'd see some of the flicks I have.

Netflix, alongside its streaming feature, is also handy -- finding a movie description that sounds intriguing, it may not necessarily be great or well rated on the site, but you know at some point in time, somebody was probably thinking "This is the greatest thing ever.", even if it was just a ridiculously arrogant director. But mostly it comes down to reading about the films on movie sites and forums. Here, rotten tomatoes, aicn, kfccinema, twitchfilm.net, etc; I even browse IMDB a good deal, viewing specific genres to see what all looks or sounds interesting, regardless of critical feedback.

[NoirFan]

My primary online source of film knowledge is this (http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/) forum. Senses of Cinema (http://www.sensesofcinema.com/) has some excellent articles as well. The capsule reviews at Time Out (http://www.timeout.com/film/) and The New Yorker are also useful, and I find DVD Beaver (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/) to be invaluable for international releases. I also have subscriptions to Cineaste and Cinema Scope. Plus, of course, a Netflix account and a library card.

[droidguy1119]

There's this new website called www.jinni.com that I had high hopes for, but even after rating 300 movies it still gave me the same uninspired recommendations.

I see a lot of intriguing covers up at the top of these forums, but other than that, my resources are limited, so hopefully there are some interesting resources in this thread.

[Ash Ketchum]

My primary online source of film knowledge is this (http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/) forum. Senses of Cinema (http://www.sensesofcinema.com/) has some excellent articles as well. The capsule reviews at Time Out (http://www.timeout.com/film/) and The New Yorker are also useful, and I find DVD Beaver (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/) to be invaluable for international releases. I also have subscriptions to Cineaste and Cinema Scope. Plus, of course, a Netflix account and a library card.

Thanks for that link to the Criterion Forum. It's a new one to me. It's got a thread about Audie Murphy. Now I want to join it.

[Geddlo]

I only just started using Netflix when it became available on the xbox360 but I love the service. I've watched movies that I had never gotten around to such as Dr Strangelove; Bonny & Clyde and a host of other classics.

Turner Classic is also a great channel. We have a Sundance movie channel here as well and every sunday at midnight they have a J-Horror movie playing that's usually worth checking out. One recently was "I'm a Cyborg, but that's Ok".

Then of course there's always forums like these and discussions with friends.

[KillerCannibal]

Now that the days of renting based solely on outlandishly awesome, and almost never actually realized, big box VHS art are gone... I just stick to the interwebs to keep me informed. I know my tastes well enough that I can spot most titles I'd have an interest in.

[MinLShaw]

I earned my BA in history, and there was a lesson I learned very early on in my studies that I think applies here. You'd be a fool to ever think you could truly master the entire field. Your best bet is to specialize and focus on a period or genre that interests you. If you dedicate your time to that one specific topic, you might eventually learn enough to rightly be an authority on it.

In the world of film, there are simply entirely too many movies from over a century now, for anyone to really have a great mastery of them. How you discover what resonates with you is generally the result of being introduced to it by someone else, and it happens to strike a chord with you. I can't even now recall how I came to be curious about Lawrence of Arabia, but I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. From there, I began watching other David Lean movies. I'm also a big James Bond fan, and my studying about Ian Fleming introduced me to Noel Coward. I've yet to see Lean's earlier films, but I know his first was co-directed with Coward. It's a spiderweb of connections, and I think that's how most movie fans link from one project that interests them to another.

I would not discount seeing something because it was VHS only, but the truth is that it's a hassle to connect the VCR these days and I can't think of anything I've been meaning to see that isn't out on DVD. Certainly there's nothing that I'm so excited to see that it outranks the absolute plethora of movies I've yet to see that I can watch on my DVD player. But then, it took me until about six years ago to finally see The Godfather, I still haven't made it to Citizen Kane and I don't even have any kind of "To See List" itinerary for when I'll get to the countless movies that one person or another counts among The Classics That You Really Must See If You Want To Be Taken Seriously As A Fan Of Movies.

My wife and I recently bought I Could Never Be Your Woman because it was $5 at Walmart and had Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer in it. We watched it and both enjoyed it, and I don't feel the least bit bad about the fact that Gunga Din isn't even in my Netflix rental queue. I'll get to what I get to, when I get to it.

[Groucho]

The formula is simple. If a film is R-rated and over 120 minutes long, it's a masterpiece. If not, IT SUCKS.