Movies!(a column written while eating popcorn, no less)
Movies and me
Movies was always totally magic for me as a child. Movies was a luxury, something symbolizing a special occation. I grew up in a tiny little community, just out in the grasp of an enourmous ocean, far away from sivilization(it felt like, we had sivilization, just a very isolated slow and frightend form of it), we had one gas station where they rented out videos, and it was a fifteen minute drive away, so my parents we're always present at the rental moment. Also, renting a video was not a ordinary event, it happend very seldom, usually just for mine and my brothers birthday. Lassiemovies became the exeption. We we're on a fleemarked(I must have been six years old i think) and mom "went a little crazy" and bought four lassie movies. We literally watched one of them to death, "Lassie and the puma(cougar?)". I think this is when my love for movies with a lot of clear colours, blue skies and beautiful landscapes were first born(wich explains why I'm still watching CSI Miami I guess, it must be the colours, cause the shows gone down the drain lately...). Then, as we grew older(my brother is two years younger, which incidentally caused me to be labeled the bad one I guess...) we started getting videos for christmas. Every christmas morning(In Norway we celibrate the 24. of desember, opening our gifts in the evening) we were allowed to open one gift each(I still do this, I'm twentyfour...), and since the time before church, dinner and then more presents tended to be a little grueling, we always rummaged through the gift for the charactheristic videoshaped ones and spent the morning watching the Disney variety, Beauty and the Beast beeing my personal favourite till this day.
But videos are one thing, going to the movies something else entirely. Aspecially where I'm from, fifty kilometers(yes, I know you yanks still go by miles, you're practically alone and it's a very strange thing to hold on to, so I don't care, go metric...) to the closest real movie theathre, going to the movies was quite the expedition, but this of course made it all the more exiting. We had some sort of cinema at home but that was for a short period of time when I was very young. There was the "community movienights", held in a public building close to my house. The floor was flat, the chairs plastic and unplesant, the place smelled of a million cigarettes, bingo nights were ususlly held there, the equipment only worked on good days and I just have one memory of a movie experience from this "theatre". But it's a big one. I can almost guarantee you have not heard of it neighter. "Chataran and Posky", a slovakian(or another easternblock country) movie about a dog and a cat, their unlikely friendship and a long travel from something bad to somewhere safe. Sounds pretty cosy? Yeah, I think everyone in the theathre thought so also, until Chataran leaves Posky(the dog). And the entire crowd is crying, kids and adults alike, that moment really stuck with me, and we still sometimes talk about that movie when I'm home. My first realization of the power of cinema.
Then there was Jurrasic Park. It's 1993, I was eleven, by this point I have already started my career as a moviebuff, my two best frieds both had much older brothers, that gains you access to a lot of movies your parents probably woud not appreciate you watching. Those lovely unsupervised afternoons eating chocolate frosting watcing violent actionflics, priceless...
And so then it came, the first movie I had waited for, I had been reading, I had found out about the project and finally it came. We drove the fifty kilometers to the theathre in the nearest town(whom was not even classified as a town in those days), mom was with us, my brother was too young to get in on this one alone and I had hyped the movie to such a level that he would never forgive our parents if he was denied the experience. The theather was totally stuffed, there were people sitting in the ailes(in the sweet times before firesafety became an issue..), and then it started, and it was amazeing. It whas THE defining movie of my childhood, and I will forever stand by it, it's a fucking glorious movie, sure, the script is surreal at times, the plotholes might fit a midsized tyrannosaurus but it does in no way matter. The scene with the glass of water in the car, the darkness, the rain, the dissapeared goat, and then... Tyrannosaurus rex, in all it's mighty glory, standing still in a flash of lightening, before tilting its head and gobling down the unfortunate goat. Sure all hell breaks loose afterwards but this is the moment that stuck with me. The timing is perfect, we know what's coming, and we are scared, but Spielberg does not fall to the temptation of just scaring us, he wants us to gasp in awe of his creation, and he makes it big time. That dinousaur still looks real today, the best special effects seen to date.
Chills down my spine. Of course I probably have severan hundred moments like that now, but there's something about that first one you know...
Movies and people
Movies are one of those social things that can tie us together or tear us a part, at least thats whats it's like for us filmbuffs, we all have those strange filmmoments, the movie we love that everyone else hated or was indiffret towards(A.I.,Vanilla Sky, Any given Sunday, The Shipping News), and we never manage to see why, the critically acclaimed movie we just don't see the appeal of(hidden dragon croaching tiger, Miami Vice, the (three)last star wars flick). Theese are, of course, the exeptions, what matters more are the movies we(ehem, most of us at least) know are universally great, which we, shallow as we are, really really hope that our friends and special someones like. The movies that might end a starting relationship if not understood or appreciated. Sin City, Reservoir Dogs, Office Space, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, Shaun of the Dead, Scarface, Once upon a time in wherever, Casablanca, Godfellas, and so on and so forth... The movies that can make or break a friendship, the reasons we talk about movies when we have just met someone, usually some common ground is found. "Wow, you loved Anchorman to!" that kinda thing, then you have the more seldom events, like "You got Adaptation!? How cool..." The scary ones "What do you mean you don't understand Pulp Fiction? And you have watched it four times?!" And the ones which can induce a "take me now" moment... The ones where you meet someone, you talk, you realized you have seen all the same movies, obscure and commercial by some strange coincedence, and this person loves the strange stuff you love. Someone besides you whom has not only seen "The Shipping news", but likes it and realizes what makes it so great. Oh, the magic of that feeling. Yes, I'm very serios about my movies. I think it's a normal thing, like that strange feeling when you're actually at the movies. Before you go in, standing in an uneasy crowd, a little stressed by all the people milling about around you. After the movie, the people around you don't totally feel like stangers anymore, there is a comfort, instilled in us by our collective experience, and everyone seems more at ease.
Now how's that for the magic of cinema?
Movies and dating
This is a serious one, and I have to admit, it's been done far better by the good people over at Pajiba, so my headline is linking to that column, it might be sawing off the branch I'm sitting on but hey, credits given where they are earned, and theese people know smart and funny. But I will of course write something anyway. Movies enter the dating pattern early on, it's not that common of a first date phenomenon, more like second or third, but it's mandatory in those weeks spent together on one of the parties coach, talking and laughing. The first movie watched together is important, it's scary, and always difficult to choose. There's the option of something scary, often made with certain inentions, and never that wise an option to begin with, not a good sign so to speak. Neighter is the very serious european tearjerking drama a good way to go, stay away from Natural Born Killers, and other slaughterfest choices also. Choose somehing you like, don't make out to be someone you're not, and it's often a good thing to find something watched and ejoyed before. Go for fun, exiting and special, dont fall into bland variety, after all sleeping with someone to stop yourself from beeing bored silly is a strange experience at best, so just don't go in that direction. And yes, it's normal to have a affection for eightees actionflics, great for hung over sunday mornings, not the best dating flics. Also, go for something feelgoody, rather than some brutal "life is hard, here, let us show you just how hard" thing. I love "Requriem for a dream", even though it always make me cry and feel a little sick, but I would never dream of putting it on in the early stages of a relationship, aim to entertain, not traumatize. Of course, don't go to far in the other direction neighter, Jim Carrey is fun, and I have a slight hang up on his works, it's effortless fun, but not the best for dating, now "Office Space" and "Casablanca" on the other hand... (Yes, I'm speaking from experience here), are pretty much perfect. Of course "Office Space" is by far the risky of the two, it's a little strange but it fits my humor very well, and if I like someone, well, I like a certain strange kind of humor, and I really like my special someone to posess it at some degree. And yes, I know it's a little bad, but most of us might be tempted to use movies to "test" a little, you can learn a lot from someones respons to a movie, and it's acceptable in my book. Probability is that all parties will be enjoying the prosess anyway. So, I seem to be suffering a little from a slight complex, Pajibas guide to third date movies leaves little to be said, so link away, you will not regret it.
Movies and language
When it comes to this point let me just say one thing. "My preccious." Yes, movies affect the way we talk, as individuals, as groups, and some cases as a huge segment of population. My personal favourite is those innside jokes we develop as groups and couples, "Mine?" from "Nemo" being my personal litany for a while. And there's the ones you smile when you remember. The sound of someone close to me muttering, in his darkest, most buff version of Bogart, "Her's looking at you kid", a line I've since had stuck in my head. There's the times where everyone used the beformentioned "My preccious" about absolutly everything, the "Luke, I am your father!" era, the fact that I have lately developed a relationship to "It wasn't me, it was the one armed man!" all the things that tie us together. You also have the more obscure ones "Cows are gonna kill me. Bisexuals are gonna kill me. Let's get out of here, where's the elevator?" If you don't know, well then I guess you're gonna have to google off to find out now aren't you? And of course, my personal favourite: "You met me at a very strange time in my life." Said in the hoarse voice of Edward Norton, in the end scene that stuck with me forever. Just before "Where is my mind" by the Pixies starts, and the scyescrapers come tumbeling down. Fight Club, no more needs to be said.
The magic of cinema.
Miramuffin says: It's a tuesday morning, I finished the column started yesterday, I'm going to make myself a big cup of coffe and relax for a while now. Listen to female blues singers for a couple of hours, surf a little, look up some of my favourite blogs and do some light reading, sweet joys of life indeed. Today I'm leaving you a little less philosophical, I'll just tell you one thing, go see some movies will you. "The Departed" seem to be a must see, so you know what you have to do, and take someone with you, good movies loves good company.
Movies was always totally magic for me as a child. Movies was a luxury, something symbolizing a special occation. I grew up in a tiny little community, just out in the grasp of an enourmous ocean, far away from sivilization(it felt like, we had sivilization, just a very isolated slow and frightend form of it), we had one gas station where they rented out videos, and it was a fifteen minute drive away, so my parents we're always present at the rental moment. Also, renting a video was not a ordinary event, it happend very seldom, usually just for mine and my brothers birthday. Lassiemovies became the exeption. We we're on a fleemarked(I must have been six years old i think) and mom "went a little crazy" and bought four lassie movies. We literally watched one of them to death, "Lassie and the puma(cougar?)". I think this is when my love for movies with a lot of clear colours, blue skies and beautiful landscapes were first born(wich explains why I'm still watching CSI Miami I guess, it must be the colours, cause the shows gone down the drain lately...). Then, as we grew older(my brother is two years younger, which incidentally caused me to be labeled the bad one I guess...) we started getting videos for christmas. Every christmas morning(In Norway we celibrate the 24. of desember, opening our gifts in the evening) we were allowed to open one gift each(I still do this, I'm twentyfour...), and since the time before church, dinner and then more presents tended to be a little grueling, we always rummaged through the gift for the charactheristic videoshaped ones and spent the morning watching the Disney variety, Beauty and the Beast beeing my personal favourite till this day.
But videos are one thing, going to the movies something else entirely. Aspecially where I'm from, fifty kilometers(yes, I know you yanks still go by miles, you're practically alone and it's a very strange thing to hold on to, so I don't care, go metric...) to the closest real movie theathre, going to the movies was quite the expedition, but this of course made it all the more exiting. We had some sort of cinema at home but that was for a short period of time when I was very young. There was the "community movienights", held in a public building close to my house. The floor was flat, the chairs plastic and unplesant, the place smelled of a million cigarettes, bingo nights were ususlly held there, the equipment only worked on good days and I just have one memory of a movie experience from this "theatre". But it's a big one. I can almost guarantee you have not heard of it neighter. "Chataran and Posky", a slovakian(or another easternblock country) movie about a dog and a cat, their unlikely friendship and a long travel from something bad to somewhere safe. Sounds pretty cosy? Yeah, I think everyone in the theathre thought so also, until Chataran leaves Posky(the dog). And the entire crowd is crying, kids and adults alike, that moment really stuck with me, and we still sometimes talk about that movie when I'm home. My first realization of the power of cinema.
Then there was Jurrasic Park. It's 1993, I was eleven, by this point I have already started my career as a moviebuff, my two best frieds both had much older brothers, that gains you access to a lot of movies your parents probably woud not appreciate you watching. Those lovely unsupervised afternoons eating chocolate frosting watcing violent actionflics, priceless...
And so then it came, the first movie I had waited for, I had been reading, I had found out about the project and finally it came. We drove the fifty kilometers to the theathre in the nearest town(whom was not even classified as a town in those days), mom was with us, my brother was too young to get in on this one alone and I had hyped the movie to such a level that he would never forgive our parents if he was denied the experience. The theather was totally stuffed, there were people sitting in the ailes(in the sweet times before firesafety became an issue..), and then it started, and it was amazeing. It whas THE defining movie of my childhood, and I will forever stand by it, it's a fucking glorious movie, sure, the script is surreal at times, the plotholes might fit a midsized tyrannosaurus but it does in no way matter. The scene with the glass of water in the car, the darkness, the rain, the dissapeared goat, and then... Tyrannosaurus rex, in all it's mighty glory, standing still in a flash of lightening, before tilting its head and gobling down the unfortunate goat. Sure all hell breaks loose afterwards but this is the moment that stuck with me. The timing is perfect, we know what's coming, and we are scared, but Spielberg does not fall to the temptation of just scaring us, he wants us to gasp in awe of his creation, and he makes it big time. That dinousaur still looks real today, the best special effects seen to date.
Chills down my spine. Of course I probably have severan hundred moments like that now, but there's something about that first one you know...
Movies and people
Movies are one of those social things that can tie us together or tear us a part, at least thats whats it's like for us filmbuffs, we all have those strange filmmoments, the movie we love that everyone else hated or was indiffret towards(A.I.,Vanilla Sky, Any given Sunday, The Shipping News), and we never manage to see why, the critically acclaimed movie we just don't see the appeal of(hidden dragon croaching tiger, Miami Vice, the (three)last star wars flick). Theese are, of course, the exeptions, what matters more are the movies we(ehem, most of us at least) know are universally great, which we, shallow as we are, really really hope that our friends and special someones like. The movies that might end a starting relationship if not understood or appreciated. Sin City, Reservoir Dogs, Office Space, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, Shaun of the Dead, Scarface, Once upon a time in wherever, Casablanca, Godfellas, and so on and so forth... The movies that can make or break a friendship, the reasons we talk about movies when we have just met someone, usually some common ground is found. "Wow, you loved Anchorman to!" that kinda thing, then you have the more seldom events, like "You got Adaptation!? How cool..." The scary ones "What do you mean you don't understand Pulp Fiction? And you have watched it four times?!" And the ones which can induce a "take me now" moment... The ones where you meet someone, you talk, you realized you have seen all the same movies, obscure and commercial by some strange coincedence, and this person loves the strange stuff you love. Someone besides you whom has not only seen "The Shipping news", but likes it and realizes what makes it so great. Oh, the magic of that feeling. Yes, I'm very serios about my movies. I think it's a normal thing, like that strange feeling when you're actually at the movies. Before you go in, standing in an uneasy crowd, a little stressed by all the people milling about around you. After the movie, the people around you don't totally feel like stangers anymore, there is a comfort, instilled in us by our collective experience, and everyone seems more at ease.
Now how's that for the magic of cinema?
Movies and dating
This is a serious one, and I have to admit, it's been done far better by the good people over at Pajiba, so my headline is linking to that column, it might be sawing off the branch I'm sitting on but hey, credits given where they are earned, and theese people know smart and funny. But I will of course write something anyway. Movies enter the dating pattern early on, it's not that common of a first date phenomenon, more like second or third, but it's mandatory in those weeks spent together on one of the parties coach, talking and laughing. The first movie watched together is important, it's scary, and always difficult to choose. There's the option of something scary, often made with certain inentions, and never that wise an option to begin with, not a good sign so to speak. Neighter is the very serious european tearjerking drama a good way to go, stay away from Natural Born Killers, and other slaughterfest choices also. Choose somehing you like, don't make out to be someone you're not, and it's often a good thing to find something watched and ejoyed before. Go for fun, exiting and special, dont fall into bland variety, after all sleeping with someone to stop yourself from beeing bored silly is a strange experience at best, so just don't go in that direction. And yes, it's normal to have a affection for eightees actionflics, great for hung over sunday mornings, not the best dating flics. Also, go for something feelgoody, rather than some brutal "life is hard, here, let us show you just how hard" thing. I love "Requriem for a dream", even though it always make me cry and feel a little sick, but I would never dream of putting it on in the early stages of a relationship, aim to entertain, not traumatize. Of course, don't go to far in the other direction neighter, Jim Carrey is fun, and I have a slight hang up on his works, it's effortless fun, but not the best for dating, now "Office Space" and "Casablanca" on the other hand... (Yes, I'm speaking from experience here), are pretty much perfect. Of course "Office Space" is by far the risky of the two, it's a little strange but it fits my humor very well, and if I like someone, well, I like a certain strange kind of humor, and I really like my special someone to posess it at some degree. And yes, I know it's a little bad, but most of us might be tempted to use movies to "test" a little, you can learn a lot from someones respons to a movie, and it's acceptable in my book. Probability is that all parties will be enjoying the prosess anyway. So, I seem to be suffering a little from a slight complex, Pajibas guide to third date movies leaves little to be said, so link away, you will not regret it.
Movies and language
When it comes to this point let me just say one thing. "My preccious." Yes, movies affect the way we talk, as individuals, as groups, and some cases as a huge segment of population. My personal favourite is those innside jokes we develop as groups and couples, "Mine?" from "Nemo" being my personal litany for a while. And there's the ones you smile when you remember. The sound of someone close to me muttering, in his darkest, most buff version of Bogart, "Her's looking at you kid", a line I've since had stuck in my head. There's the times where everyone used the beformentioned "My preccious" about absolutly everything, the "Luke, I am your father!" era, the fact that I have lately developed a relationship to "It wasn't me, it was the one armed man!" all the things that tie us together. You also have the more obscure ones "Cows are gonna kill me. Bisexuals are gonna kill me. Let's get out of here, where's the elevator?" If you don't know, well then I guess you're gonna have to google off to find out now aren't you? And of course, my personal favourite: "You met me at a very strange time in my life." Said in the hoarse voice of Edward Norton, in the end scene that stuck with me forever. Just before "Where is my mind" by the Pixies starts, and the scyescrapers come tumbeling down. Fight Club, no more needs to be said.
The magic of cinema.
Miramuffin says: It's a tuesday morning, I finished the column started yesterday, I'm going to make myself a big cup of coffe and relax for a while now. Listen to female blues singers for a couple of hours, surf a little, look up some of my favourite blogs and do some light reading, sweet joys of life indeed. Today I'm leaving you a little less philosophical, I'll just tell you one thing, go see some movies will you. "The Departed" seem to be a must see, so you know what you have to do, and take someone with you, good movies loves good company.
posted by Miramuffin at 3:10 PM
1 Comments:
I don't advertise on your blog now do I? Get the hell out of mine! I don't care for your message, I am not in this for money, probably hard for some of you vultures to concive of such a consept but that's not my problem! Go away.
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