criterionforum.org

FrauBlucher wrote:

JohnShade wrote:and as someone who teaches high school students. The kids who express an interest in film almost always mention Tarantino, Nolan, or Fincher; I've never heard any of them mention Lynch. Perhaps that happens when they go to college, but apparently not enough for any of them to actually buy tickets to his movies and take his advice about watching them on a big screen.

I'm not surprised. Tarantino, Nolan and Fincher are more accessible and marketed to the mainstream while Lynch is not nor tries to be. I agree that he would be more of a discovery to the college student.

This is also anecdotal, but I've taught a few sections of Intro to Film at a large public university and almost none of my students know Lynch either (at least prior to the course). And while I've never shown anything by Tarantino, Fincher, or Nolan, I inevitably have two or three students (out of 20) write their final papers on one of their films. In fact, I already know that I've got a Tarantino paper and a Fincher paper coming my way this semester. Although I also consistently have a student or two who fall in love with Rivette or Varda and end up writing on them.

Full disclosure: I did write a (probably really bad) paper on Jackie Brown while I was an undergraduate (but I wrote a Lynch paper too!)

Also anecdotal: The English 2 Accelerated class I was a part of in high school watched and wrote about The Straight Story, and another teacher screened the behind-the-diner scene from Mulholland Drive in one of my senior electives for a reason that I cannot remember. A decade later, The Elephant Man was an option (that nobody chose to pursue) for a Frankenstein project I assigned a few weeks ago. Also I feel like I had friends who were into the Dune universe (Duneiverse?) who knew the reputation of the movie, so a sliver of Lynch is out there even though the availability of his work is far more limited than, say, Nolan's.

As far as directors go, I don't think I started paying close attention to individual directors (or individual movies other than Star Wars and Lord of the Rings) until later in high school, thanks to the recommendations of friends and the work of like Tarantino, Spielberg, Scorsese, and, to a lesser extent, del Toro. I still have the school-paper reviews I wrote for Grindhouse, The Departed, Munich, and others stashed somewhere around the house.

I'm quite jealous of all these scholar experiences.

In France, my scholarship was extremely light on movies. We got to see 4 movies in theaters in junior high school as part of a nationwide govt program, but these aside, I think I might have seen maybe 3 or 4 movies as part of the courses themselves (I definitely remember seeing Night & Fog and Ali : Fear Eats Soul) but that's about it.

We saw some plays during high school though, as part of our litteracy courses. And of course a few English speaking stuff during our English courses, but mostly Friends' episodes (which I hated back then).

tenia wrote:I'm quite jealous of all these scholar experiences.

In France, my scholarship was extremely light on movies. We got to see 4 movies in theaters in junior high school as part of a nationwide govt program, but these aside, I think I might have seen maybe 3 or 4 movies as part of the courses themselves (I definitely remember seeing Night & Fog and Ali : Fear Eats Soul) but that's about it.

We saw some plays during high school though, as part of our litteracy courses. And of course a few English speaking stuff during our English courses, but mostly Friends' episodes (which I hated back then).

My senior high school class walked to our local multiplex to watch Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, which was supposed to
augment a unit on World War II. Our teacher also forced us to stay through all 13 minutes of credits.

The first directors I remember actively paying attention to and trying to watch multiple works by as a child were Spielberg, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Stanley Kubrick and Blake Edwards. By my first year of college, I was deeply invested in Robert Altman and Orson Welles.

My first Criterion DVD was Silence of the Lambs, which I owned a few months before I actually had a DVD player.

This thread calls to mind the unforgettable story of teddyleevin's parents not wanting him to watch Boogie Nights, and the forum members who tried to persuade him to run away.

dustybooks wrote:This thread calls to mind the unforgettable story of teddyleevin's parents not wanting him to watch Boogie Nights, and the forum members who tried to persuade him to run away.

That's rough. My father took me to see that and The People Vs. Larry Flynt at a tender age. We had nice conversations afterwards.

He brought my younger siblings to see American Psycho with us. When the ticket taker urged him to consider what
he was doing, he said he would "take his chances".

As I've mentioned before, my mother took me to see Bonnie and Clyde when I was four - the contrast between the free-wheeling escapades and the tragic elements made a big impression on me.

The Criterion Collection label didn't exist when I was in high school and I wasn't keen on buying films on VHS (or Beta), but the stuff I loved and/or recorded off TV during those years included films by Welles, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Spielberg, Bogdanovich and Ashby. I was also big on Universal/Hammer horror and 30s/40s comedies. I wasn't as keen on foreign films although I made the effort to see Kagemusha when it was first released and admired it.

As to Lynch specifically, I saw The Elephant Man two or three times when it came out. By the time I saw Dune four years later, I had see Eraserhead on late-night cable and I was of the impression that Lynch had abandoned his idiosyncratic vision for more mainstream product. Then Blue Velvet was released and all was right with the world.

I was shown the first two Godfather films, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, most of Spielberg's films, and the Matrix Trilogy, between ages 6-10 among a lot of other films I can't remember. One funny anecdote of mine, my father rented a subtitle less copy of Once Upon a Time in Mexico. This was before I knew and understood English, so he had to explain the whole movie to me. And 14 years later, I still vividly remember one scene (where Depp pays a kid to "see" for him since he had his eyes gouged out) even though I haven't seen the film again since then. I started really paying attention to directors at the age of around 15, when I decided I wanted to study film in the future (which I shall begin next year)

dustybooks wrote:This thread calls to mind the unforgettable story of teddyleevin's parents not wanting him to watch Boogie Nights, and the forum members who tried to persuade him to run away.

I get the feeling his folks would have voted Trump.

Geez, based on the post about his age, he'll be around 26 now (but probably pass for 28).

cdnchris wrote:Geez, based on the post about his age, he'll be around 26 now (but probably pass for 28).

Do ya think he's bought that copy of Boogie Nights?

Guys, teddyleevin posted something on this forum JUST YESTERDAY.

I don't read pornography

bdsweeney wrote:

dustybooks wrote:This thread calls to mind the unforgettable story of teddyleevin's parents not wanting him to watch Boogie Nights, and the forum members who tried to persuade him to run away.

I get the feeling his folks would have voted Trump.

All the more ironic with Trump history of "pussy-grabbing". What a wonderful ally to the faith community!

swo17 wrote:Guys, teddyleevin posted something on this forum JUST YESTERDAY.

Yeah right, and the phone calls were coming from inside my hou

I'm so old now.

We all are

Wasn't that the underpinning theme of Boogie Nights?

I don't know. I haven't seen it in 10 years. Maybe there's residual guilt. On the plus side, I've made at least 100 pornos in the intervening years!

On the topic at hand, I would always end up on field trips into NYC for a scholastic press conference at Columbia (I was editor of my HS's lit mag), but instead of attending any seminars or lectures, I would spend all of my money made as a library page at the late, lamented Kim's on Broadway, blind-buying The Lower Depths or Boudu but also ogling The Night Porter. Unfortunately, the saucy artwork made it a risky move.

10 years later, I can confirm that the film is not as sexy as the cover. Or at all.

Oh, and my parents didn't vote for Trump, but they also haven't seen a movie in the theatres since American Sniper, so....

I like that you were sneaking off to buy Boudu, what a worthy film. I remember going around the early '00s to the Virgin megastore and buying Juliet of the Spirits. After La dolce and 8 1/2 I found it confusing then sold it to my local record store. Haven't watched it since...Criterion regrets are a thing too

My parents were actually the ones who got me hooked on Criterion in the first place, by buying me the Criterion of Gimme Shelter for the holidays when I was in my first year of middle school(!!!). Although my near-simultaneous discovery of Wes Anderson probably would've gotten me there at around the same time (and my love for Monty Python led to my second Criterion title, Brazil).

Right! I saw Time Bandits as a kid and loved it, and became a Python fan after the fact and then fell in love with Brazil; that and Life of Brian would have been my first titles. I found my way to the Criterion.com site (spine numbers at the time in the mid-300s) and poked around in vague wonderment. I just started picking up various titles (a dozen or so I had at least heard of, or knew the directors).

The Virgin megastore in Times Square was the site of at least one Criterion purchase for me back in the same era which fatefully contained an enchanting postcard for Elevator to the Gallows as well as the then-current list of all titles. Being from the era of "gotta catch 'em all" leads to a life of impulse buys, but I haven't regretted it.

Teddy thank you for not being offended that I randomly invoked your very old posts, that story just always stuck with me. And alas, I too am old now.

Not a bit! As one may tell from my long membership but low post count, I'm a daily lurker, so consider my surprise to see this nostalgic tale unearthed. I'm flattered anyone would trawl the board to recover my juvenilia, but if this minor story (pun probably intended) has stuck in your memory, then that certainly speaks to the strength of your brain. You've aged well in 10 years!