Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Back when I was a teenager and in my early 20's I used to pride myself on my highbrow taste in films. I was always trying to seek out the next Indie or Foreign film, and took that secret pleasure in spitting out all these old or obscure movies when ever people brought up a best movies conversation.

Now I just can't find the desire to sit through these movies anymore. I'll even rent these types of movies, pop them in and after about a half hour, turn them off or fall asleep. I sold my DVD collection about a year ago to go Blu, but haven't really replaced any of my highbrow films.

If I pop in a movie now, it is usually a high budget action flick or comedy. Perhaps its just the process of getting older, but after working all day I just want something light that I can kick back and enjoy.

Anyone else go through something like this?

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

I suspect it has less to do with being older and more to do with being more isolated. These films are great for discussions, and even to try to "one up" your friends in friendly competition. But when we get older, we don't hang out with friends the way we used to, the women in our lives tend to steer clear of such films, and as a result there really isn't anyone around to provide the payoff for the experience. Does that make any sense?

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Actually, I started being more discriminating in my film taste when I got into DVD, and it kinda annoyed my wife when I wouldn't want to watch certain films or types of films. I don't think she ever used the exact word "snob" (we're too good of friends), but I could tell it bothered her.

Then recently, we Netflixed 2012. As it went on in its own special way, she started to make little "oh, come on..." comments, until it finally finished whereupon she turned to me and said "you know how I used to give you crap about being snobby about movies?..."

I mean, we don't sit around watching movies with unpronounceable names by director's with unpronounceable names about unpronounceable things, but I'm a little more observant about how films are put together. Spending hours and hours on the TV Tropes website also helps with that. Watching Avatar was like a checklist of all the major articles on that site, but I was also aware enough to know that, despite it's paint by numbers approach, it was at least done with some sense of style and was fairly enjoyable to watch.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Sound like you just got tired of pretentious people and pretending to dislike Hollywood fare as you did in your teens and early 20's.

Since where are all indepdent and foreign films "high art". Amelie is every bit the crappy crowd pleaser as something like Forrest Gump.


What really peeved me about film snobs I knew is the backflash against films like Sideways and Lost In Translation which they would have loved to death if they financially tanked and didn't start winning Oscars. Even many of the most beloved foreign films were commercial successes in their home countries. If people love film they shouldn't care one way or another about a films commercial accomplishments. Unless I own stock in the Production Company it doesn't bother me whether a film makes $1 dollar or a billion in profit.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Didnt think of that, but yeah I'm sure that is a big reason. About the only way I can get the woman to stay awake during a movie is to watch something funny, or an action movie that I have so loud it is impossible to sleep. The few times I have tried to watch a movie with subtitles or something with some actual drama and story, she asks so many damn questions that I just stopped trying.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

When I was in film school, I'd see the latest Godard, Truffaut, Altman films with my film school buddies, as well as old classics, but in the neighborhood, I'd see Italian westerns, blaxploitation, and kung fu with my neighborhood pals. I saw the highbrow stuff in school and in Manhattan and the lowbrow stuff at home in the Bronx. Jump ahead 35 or so years. Now I realize there are tons of classic films I've never seen. I've got a lot of them on VHS and DVD, e.g. Ozu, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, some Bergman, some unseen Truffaut, etc. but little time or energy to see them. Every so often I'll find the time for an unseen Kurosawa. But there's a ton of stuff like that I want to see before I die.

As for today's output, most foreign and indie films these days are absolute bores. They all seem to be the same, too. I read the reviews of them every Friday in the Times and they all sound interchangeable. You don't have filmmakers today of the quality of Truffaut, Renoir, Fellini, Visconti, David Lean, Carol Reed, etc. Just like you don't have Hollywood filmmakers of the quality of John Ford, Howard Hawks, Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Capra, Stanley Kubrick, Altman, etc.. Nor do you have popular filmmakers who hold a candle to the guys who made masterpieces for 42nd Street and the grindhouse theaters once upon a time, e.g. Anthony Mann, John Sturges, Robert Aldrich, Don Siegel, Phil Karlson, Sam Peckinpah, etc. We had Walter Hill doing great work in this vein for a few years in the 70s-90s, but not anything of note in the last 15 years.

I turned to anime and Hong Kong film about 18 years ago, because great filmmakers were working in those areas, including Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii, Rintaro, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Satoshi Kon, in anime; and John Woo, Tsui Hark, Yuen Wo Ping, Sammo Hung, Ringo Lam, Peter Chan, Johnnie To, Ching Siu Tung, to name a few, in Hong Kong. Last year, my biggest moviegoing thrills came from John Woo's RED CLIFF (shortened North American cut) which was everything a Hollywood blockbuster used to be (think EL CID) but isn't anymore, and Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. (And yes, I'm a fan of Tarantino.)

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

I like people who have a very broad/wide range in movie taste as opposed to someone who only likes art flicks, or only likes action movies.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

I plan on seeing both El Secreto de Sus Ojos and MacGruber this week.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Yeah, I'm going through that right now, and I'm only 21. I used to want to watch anything I could get my hands on, but I don't feel that way anymore.

I still keep up with current films just fine, but I'm finding that I'm less and less interested in watching anything older than that - I don't know why.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

I assume you'll be watching MacGruber in one of those snobby arthouses. :mad:

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

If watching and enjoying a movie requires energy or effort, then you're watching it for all the wrong reasons. :shrug:

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Easy women can provide brief, fleeting satisfaction.

Women of substance you have to court and seduce before they slowly reveal their mysteries provide more rewarding experiences along with lasting memories.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Buzzing the Brillo is no substitute for making a Raspberry Swirl.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Hollywood or not Hollywood, I'll watch a movie if I think it looks good or entertaining. But I won't seek out foreign films or indies, simply because most of the time I enjoy the bigger budget films more. I don't pretend to like "fine film" like a lot of people.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Well whatever your sexual fetishes might be I'm sure you got the point. :)

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Why do you assume people are "pretending" to like what they like? Isn't that, in essence, snobbish behavior?

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

:thumbsup:

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

http://img5.allocine.fr/acmedia/rsz/...0/18912653.jpg



i like art films.... action films..... comedies......

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

Exactly, it's reverse snobbism. Kind of reminds me how right-wingers ridicule intellectuals for being smart.

Re: Anyone else just not have the energy to be a "film snob" anymore?
 

I used to be like that sort of a few years back and really liking the 30s, 40s, 50s b&w era where i would watch just about any movie from that era like nothing and be enthralled by all those talking guys in gray suits but now i admittedly like a lot of pulpy/b-movie types but also enjoy the more complex things, so i can watch anything from Godard's Contempt to Predator to Manos: The Hands of Fate and hold each equally in different regards.