Film Buffs

As much as I love movies and films, I'm sadly still not what you call a "film buff". I used to think I was, compared to my friends and colleagues, but you eventually gain perspective after you meet some people, like film critics or well, film professors, etc.

What would fall under the status of film buff?
Well, Roger Ebert said that to be a film critic, you had to be familiar with at least 5 Ozu films during his rant about the new NYTimes film critic A.O. Scott. Old news definitely, and I'm not that fond of A.O. Scott's pedantic tone in his occasional rantings on the cinema nor am I much of a fan of Roger Ebert, but I do prefer Ebert over Scott. I love Ebert's writing though, if I were to ever be a film critic, I'd hope that they could be as descriptive and concise with such brevity but still in an engaging manner.

Anyway, to be considered a film buff, I'd say you have to be familiar with a broad array of genres and decades of film. Decades, because any fan of film would know that the cinema is only a little over the age of 100, I think 116. You begin with Edison and the Lumiere brothers, perhaps totter over to Meliere and Griffith, etc etc. Go through German Expressionism, Hollywood, French New Wave, film noir and the musical, a little science fiction, etc etc etc.

You could have watched every movie that was shown in every movie theater in the U.S. in the past ten years, but you'd still be missing out on so much.

For example, I don't consider myself a film buff because I am not familiar with some of the greatest auteurs of cinema. I have yet to see any Truffaut (The 300 Blows), Fassbinder, Wong Kar Wai, Fritz Lang, or Bergman among numerous others.

I've only seen one Ozu film, which I loved dearly, but it wasn't even Tokyo Story (1953), but it was Late Spring (1949).

At the same time, I haven't seen the cult classics such as Trainspotting (1996) or The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), or even godly American films such as The Godfather (1972). I haven't seen The Sound of Music (1965) or even Sunset Boulevard (1950), and I haven't even mentioned Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).

I've seen Jules and Jim (1962), which is the only Truffaut I've seen, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and A Town Called Panic (2009). Continuing with foreign animation, I've seen The Illusionist (2010), and for science fiction, I have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), except that I didn't really understand any of it. Add a couple of hundred films and movies to the list, and you've got the number of lets just all call them films, in my life.

I'll consider myself a film buff when I have seen a decent amount of films that are considered cinematic gold, and can grab films, years, directors, screenwriters, and actors from memory.

Now there is also something called a cinephile and according to a documentary called Cinemania (2002),  something called cinemania.

I used to think I was into movies and that it'd be cool to see a documentary about a handful of cinephiles in New York City. I was dead wrong. I was absolutely, ridiculously, horrified. Even more so when I tried to describe my horror to my friends. "These people watch at least three to five movies a day and.." To which my friends replied, "But you watch at least three movies a day right?". I don't watch at least three to five movies a day, nor do I watch at least 10 films a week.

In the end, I'm still pretty much just a sore young kid, with a whole future dangling in front of me. I'm currently in love with London and its theater culture. I'm a fan of David Tennant and Benedict Cumberbatch, not that they are some Robert De Niro's or anything, but I think they both have a decent amount of acting skill, but more importantly, globs of charisma, like Cillian Murphy or Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

I love film though. I absolutely love it. I want to get better at it. Serious pouty face.