Solid Snake

I'm not sure how I could phrase that better but it's something that I always think about. For those of you that know a bit about me, it seems in tune with some of the more serious things I've talked about in terms of film.

We all enjoy films obviously. It's entertainment. BUT....sometimes....we see something that made us realize that this film was beyond just entertainment. It was amazing, beautiful, or whatever. It was something in that film that made you realize, "Wow...that's a work of art."

As a kid (born in 1986) I mostly watched action films, HK and 80s action flicks dominantly, as I grew up. I'm going to say that dramas probably didn't interest me cuz they didn't seem compelling enough for my attention.

I was a junior in High School. Was in Dual Credit English class, gets you College credit when in HS, and we saw some films in there. We saw the Matrix, was the first time I had actually seen it as a whole beyond the action scenes. I liked it a lot..but to me it was just a sci fi action flick that put all the cool things I had previously seen into one package. It wasn't till we read Heart of Darkness, which I didn't like at that age and have yet to read it as an adult, that we were allowed to see Apocalypse Now.

The moment the credits start...I knew this was a much different beast than anything I had ever seen. It was entirely different from what I imagined a Vietnam War era based film would be like. It was fucking amazing. I can't begin to describe how I felt during the Valkyrie sequence. Just in awe of what I was watching and hearing from the film. My teacher had the DVD player set up to a projector in class and it was great. It just felt epic. It was sooo different from anything I'd expect from what little pop culture things I got from it. Col. Killgore's little speech on the beach had a MUCH different tone than what I thought was a much lighthearted line. It made me question so many things. It made me think. No film had done that. This did.

Sooooo...what's your story?

Cardiac161

I always knew film was art, but I finally understood film as an art after I saw Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express. Non-linear, very simple plot, and unconventional cinematography, yet I saw it as an exhilarating expression.

gmanca

I would say at age 12, watching The Truman Show in theaters and realizing on a visceral level that I was really enjoying this film even though people were complaining afterward, specifically being boring and Carrey not being his usual goofy self. Of course, there were times before when I enjoyed more mature films that I now know was based on artistic stylings, i.e Nixon.

Autotelik

Took a film&lit class in college in 1999. That did it.

Strevlac

2001: A Space Odyssey back when I was 8.

JumpCutz

Yeah I saw 2001 on the big screen in London when I was 11 and The Exorcist the next night at the Odeon. That one two punch knocked my on my young ass. I was instantly hooked on the art of filmmaking and the impact those two films had on me was absolutely earth shattering.

Sonic

When I saw Bladerunner. Especially the ending of Batty dying...and the meaning, the style, the flow of that scene and the entire movie made me realize that certain movies is a work of art.

Strevlac

I saw it on syndicated television in Phoenix AZ during the early 80's and was transfixed from start to finish. I remember the host Bill Rose (anyone from AZ that remembers him?) would give little nuggets of info about Stanley Kubrick and the making of the film during the commercial breaks. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Numanoid

Yep, 2001. Probably in my early teens.

Kurt D

Seeing as how it's an art film this is an easy answer, but watching Koyaanisqatsi at Cinema 21 in the early '80s pretty much did it for me.

Hokeyboy

In 1983 my Dad took me to see Seven Samurai. I was 12 years old, and I loved every second of it. But as I watched it, I became aware of a poetic quality that my 12yo mind probably couldn't process entirely. I couldn't say exactly why it was so great, it just felt that way to me. This was without buzz, hype, nothing. Just me and my Dad. I came out of that theater gobsmacked. Movies were never quite the same again. I still loved my entertaining junk -- I saw Chuck Norris's INVASION USA three times in the Fall of 1985 -- but that screening of "Seven Samurai" changed my expectations of what a movie could deliver.

Pizza

2001 in it's initial run was very challenging for my young mind but I knew I was seeing something unique. Then I really dug the abstract ballet-styled dancing the gang did in west side story when I watched it on tv. Finally Citizen Kane pulled me in like no other drama could. But even in my single digits I saw films as something special and always wished to be a part of the creative process.

Neitzl

I was in high school (17 years old at the time) taking a film class and we watched 3 films that completely made me realize how great art film can be:
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
The Battleship Potemkin
M

Troy Stiffler

Oh God. I still haven't figured it out. Once you think about it too much, it becomes harder to enjoy. I fucking love movies.

MLBFan24

During my senior year in high school, my English Lit teacher dedicated one whole week to foreign films (there was a teaching plan behind it, not just being a lazy teacher haha)

One of the films was "Run Lola Run"

I guess I consider that the first time I viewed film as an art.

NIMH Rat

When I started reading about movies. Great critics really do help people appreciate things.

GenPion

This is probably the best answer I could give. I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was 10 or 11 when it was playing on Turner Classic Movies one day. Watching it for the first time was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have had in my life thus far.

Josh-da-man

"Full Metal Jacket"

Watched this on cable when I was twelve or thirteen, and I think this was the first time I really noticed how the director was framing the shots and using the camera to create mood and tell story. Prior to that, I just sort of thought they turned on the camera, pointed it at the actors, and filmed what happened.

Travis McClain

Growing up, we watched primarily animated fare and stuff targeted at families/children. In sixth grade--for reasons I still don't understand--we spent one day watching Doctor Zhivago. It was on the TV in every class room. They paused it for us to switch classes on schedule, then resumed, so we watched that movie in probably four or five different settings. Very bizarre. Anyway, nearly every other student took the time to write notes to one another in the dark and screw off but I was sucked into it. When Komarovsky attacks Lara, I just about came out of my seat. "You, my dear, are a slut," he says, then throws her to the bed; moments later he's re-dressing and coldly tells her, "Don't kid yourself, this was rape."

I was probably the only student actively watching and paying any attention, and that blew my mind. I turned to kid next to me and asked, "Did you see that?!" The answer was no, and I had never felt so alone. That was the exact moment that I realized that there was a power to a film that wasn't just singing critters, smart asses with pithy catchphrases and fat guys getting kicked in the nuts. Those kinds of films required an investment of attention, and from that moment on I told myself that whenever the opportunity presented itself I would make that investment.

Addendum:
Great question, OP! I hadn't reflected on that viewing of Zhivago in quite some time, and it was nice to recollect. Thanks for the prompt!

GenPion

Two more important experiences for me:

One Hour Photo was the first film I ever saw where I realized how important cinematography can be in impacting the entire experience of a viewing of a film. Hands down, that film has some of the best cinematography I have ever seen.

When I saw 25th Hour opening weekend in my hometown it was a small audience of about five people. Honestly, that was rather depressing, and even more so when the film had ended. It didn't ultimately matter though. I knew then that I had witnessed something that was genuine art. The impact that film had on me with tremendous, with the thematic backbone of the story and the striking imagery of a post 9/11 New York. I was moved to tears. The music by Terence Blanchard helped too, and this was the first film I saw starring Edward Norton. I was 13 years old and it was one of those special experiences with cinema that made me feel film-making could be life-affirming. This film was one of a handful to truly push me in the direction of wanting to make movies and to continue to test out my own creativity.

Hazel Motes

mike45

2001.

JumpCutz

Yes. Indeed.

riotinmyskull

i can't remember specifically but i know it was around '97 or '98. that's when i actively searched out films that weren't just popcorn fluff or silly comedies but instead carried a certain emotional weight or atleast had interesting story telling methods or cinematography such as:

AMERICAN BEAUTY
GO
AMERICAN HISTORY X
CLOCKWORK ORANGE
THE SHINING
2001
CLERKS
PULP FICTION
JACKIE BROWN
RUSHMORE
BOTTLE ROCKET
LA CONFIDENTIAL
BOOGIE NIGHTS
CHASING AMY
FARGO
APOCALYPSE NOW
12 MONKEYS

this was also when i started noticing director's names other than steven spielberg.

Ash Ketchum

That's a very good question, Solid Snake, and I really find the responses quite interesting.

As a kid, I read reviews and film articles in the daily papers regularly, so I learned early on the importance of the director in the creation of the film. If I had to pick the films that hit this idea home to me most clearly at an early age, they were probably LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, by David Lean, and DR. STRANGELOVE, by Kubrick, both of which I saw when I was ten. Each of them was different enough from conventional Hollywood films to indicate to me, even though I couldn't articulate it at the time, that there was a singular artistic vision or sensibility at work. An artist was working in a way that wouldn't have been evident in the average western or Beach Party movie. This all became more evident as I saw films by John Frankenheimer (SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE) and, later, Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE.

But the big explosion in my film consciousness came in high school in 1969-71, when I saw Leone's westerns for the first time and then Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, Altman's M*A*S*H and numerous counterculture films and I went to revival theaters to see CITIZEN KANE and THE SEVEN SAMURAI and YOJIMBO.