Transcription
If you clicked on this video, it probably means you're interested in becoming a movie buff. Whether it's because you want to look smart recommending all those obscure films no one ever knows, or maybe you want to be able to make some cool references and conversations, or maybe, and most likely, you are just interested in movies and want to dive deeper into it. Regardless of the reason, you found the right video. These are all the steps I either followed or wish I had known when I wanted to become a cophile, as someone who at that point would only watch very commercial films. So without further ado, here is my how to be a cinnophile 101.
Step one, watch what's out now. Don't start by jumping straight into those older intimidating films. Yes, it would help if you watch that, but all in due time. For now, keep up to date and watch all of the current releases. Now, you might be asking, how do we filter out the soon-to-be classics with the trendy films that are going to be forgotten in weeks? Awards seasons. Follow the Oscar buzz, the Golden Globes buzz, the BAFTAs, etc. Read online what films are competing this season and watch those. Granted, these awards seasons are infamous for snubbing people in nominations, but it's still a good starting point. And reading articles of who's being nominated and which films are competing will tend to lead to information on who has been snubbed. And that's where you're going to find more movies to add to your watch list. Then once you feel you've seen enough, then you move on to stage two.
Stage two is all about the classics, or at least the contemporary ones. Try not to be too ambitious and watch films of Persona right off the bat because you'll most likely be robbing yourself of a good film experience if you don't adjust yourself to the weirdness that comes with experimental or foreign cinema. Watch the films that would make all the film bros go, "How have you never seen this?" So this would be The Dark Knight, Whiplash, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, etc. The best places to look for these films are any articles or list online claiming the best films of all time. Sight and Sound, Letterbox, and IMDb are some good examples. I personally would recommend the IMDb list starting out because it's not as pretentious as the other two. For this stage, I would recommend to only watch commercial classics from now all the way down to the 1980s and maybe in some special cases, watch some older ones that have been proven to be timeless, for example, The Godfather.
Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films. Now, it's time to get rid of the language barrier. Revisit the list you used in the previous step, but now pick and choose the famous foreign films. Films like Parasite, City of God, Spirited Away, and The Handmaiden are perfect examples. Or you could also watch the foreign films that inspired some of your favorite western remakes, such as Old Boy or Infernal Affairs. And to ease the transition more, pick the films that you feel best cater to your taste. Find the popular foreign films that fall under the genres or tropes you love. This is when you need to start being open-minded and notice how culture can influence storytelling. Take note of the things that make these films different from the English films you normally watch and how these differences can actually benefit the film.
And now on to the next step, which is by far the most life-changing and favorite step for me. Discovering directors or auteurs step. This is when you start truly understanding directorial styles, influences, and the technicals of what make a film what it is. You can find your list of directors by once again looking up articles on the best directors of all time. But another great and more personalized way would be looking at the films you love now. Look at your favorite films and find out who directed them. And from there, look up what's considered that director's best or essential films and watch those. Watch three or maybe five of the essential/best films from each director on your list. Start noticing how they write or how they frame a shot or any other trademarks that they may have. Tarantino has nonlinear storytelling. Scorsese fixates on violence. Kubrick leans into visual storytelling, etc. Try to not only focus on what the film made you feel, but how it made you feel and why this specific director told it differently or told it in a way that you liked most. Review these films on a technical basis, not just an emotional one. And this is when you will begin to understand what makes a film what it is. Then hopefully by the end of this, you will have established a favorite director or at least a favorite style. And this will transition you perfectly into a very fun stage.
And now it's time for the experimental stage. By this point, you have a solid understanding of what makes a film a film and what you personally like about them. You have a favorite director, a favorite style, and some favorite movies. But now, it's time to expand on that even more. Get everything you love and break it down. Research what older directors influence your favorites and watch some of their films. Figure out if there are any subcategories or subgenres within your favorite filmmaking style and watch those. Figure out how your favorite film got made and what inspired its creation. And this is when you can get into those obscure and into the weird. Look up experimental and surrealistic film. You've created a solid ground for your film tastes, but now it's time to break out of that comfort zone. You can try to watch specifically all those experimental films that align more to the taste that you've established. But try to embrace the weird, the really pretentious, and the obscure.
Then finally onto the last stage, the by the decades journey into film. Time to go back in time and start studying history. Begin forming a watch list based on decades: the '30s, the '40s, the '50s, '60s, and so on. Don't try to watch every film ever made from each decade, but just watch the notable ones, similar to how you found the other films in the previous stages. Just look up the best films within that decade as your guideline. And as you watch these films, study up on the film eras it's in. The '30s and the '50s were the Golden Age. It was the development of talkies and the development of just innovation and technology for cinema. The '60s and the '80s was the New Hollywood era. The bottomless creativity that came from freedom of restrictions. Then the '90s is the rise of indie film, and so on. This is when you get to learn about the different film movements such as French New Wave, Japanese New Wave, British New Wave, Italian Neorealism, Film Noir, Soviet Montage, etc. And this is also how you get to know how the world around you influences the films that are made. And this is also when you get to take notice of which films are timeless classics and which are purely great because it's a product of its time. This is also when you get to see those references in modern cinema that you thought were original. And this is how you get to see how creative they had to be back then with such limited technology and the achievements they impressively made. This is when you learn about how genres were made and where you get the privilege of watching films that did everything for the first time. This is where you get to see how the oldies influenced the very cinema we love and know today.
There won't ever truly be an end to this journey. By the time you feel you've finished watching every film you deem necessary, you'll probably have added 10 new films to your watch list or five upcoming films that will be released this year or the next. It seems intimidating at first because of the myriad of films out there, but I guess that's kind of the beauty of it. You never run out of cinema. There will always be more to learn and more to watch. So, don't be intimidated before going in. But before I end this video, here are some other random tips.
Run times can seem extremely daunting, especially in a time we live in where our attention spans are worse than a goldfish. A good way of normalizing myself to long run times was mixing them in. Don't try to watch five long films in a row, 'cause you will definitely overtire yourself. And don't try to watch a 4-hour film if you've never sat down and actually finished a three-hour one. Watch a 90-minute film one day and then watch a 120-minute film the next and then return back to a 90-minute film and rotate. But don't be worried. Almost every cinephile I know has at least one 3-hour popular film everyone loves but them. So yes, expect to hate at least one or two long films where nothing happens in your future.
And this leads me to my next piece of advice. Find your own opinions. Don't let pretentious cinephiles bully you into hating or loving a film. Like what you like, hate what you hate. Don't read other people's reviews before you form your own opinion. Don't be worried if you have the wrong opinion because there's no such thing. But always be open-minded. Give every director or every film style or movement a chance instead of forming an opinion based on one bad experience.
Finding a community in all this is one of the most effective and great ways to learn more. It challenges you to try out films you never thought of trying and it encourages you on seeing films in different angles. So go make a Letterboxd account. Meet people in your local cinema that plays old films and find cinephile friends. A lot of my favorite films have been recommended by other cinephiles.
But finally, my last and most important advice is remember it's meant to be fun. Don't be scared that you are behind because there's no such thing. And don't let people intimidate you with that classic line, "You've never seen that." Because everyone has one movie they've seen and the other person hasn't. So watch at your pace and just enjoy the journey. And sooner or later, amongst your friends and family, you'll be considered that one person who knows a lot about movies.