Movie Man » Do you love movies? I mean, really love movies?

Do you love movies? I mean, really love movies?

August 7th, 2008 at 10:01am Will Pfeifer

Over at his Website on Cinema, David Bordwell offers the best definition of a cinephile I’ve ever seen:

”The real crux, I think, is this. The cinephile loves the idea of film.

That means loving not only its accomplishments but its potential, its promise and prospects. It’s as if individual films, delectable and overpowering as they can be, are but glimpses of something far grander. That distant horizon, impossible to describe fully, is Cinema, and it is this art form, or medium, that is the ultimate object of devotion. In the darkening auditorium there ignites the hope of another view of that mysterious realm. The pious will call Cinema a holy place, the secular will see it as the treasure-house of an artform still capable of great things. The promised land of cinema, as experimentalists of the 1920s called it: that, mystical as it sounds, is my sense of what the cinephile yearns for.

This separates the cinephile from the lover of novels or classical music. They love their art, I suspect, because of its great accomplishments. Who with literary or musical taste would embrace the subpar novel or the apprentice toccata? But cinephiles will watch damn near anything looking for a moment’s worth of magic.”

Maybe you have to be a real cinephile to even care what the word means, much less debate the definition, but that description — especially that last line — fits me to the proverbial T. I’ve watched loads of movies I knew in advance would be pretty awful, hoping — usually against hope — that some scene, moment or frame would redeem it. It almost never happens, but when it does, it’s worth all the otherwise wasted hours. Here, for example, is a quick write-up I did about an otherwise snoozer of a movie called SH! THE OCTOPUS! — that nevertheless has one single mind-blowing scene.

How about you? Any examples of this sort of obsessive cinephilia you’d care to fess up to?

Entry Filed under: Moviegoing

9 Comments Add your own

1. Pat Cunningham | August 7th, 2008 at 11:43 am

Will: I love movies that are so bad they’re good. I know you do, too. The classic examples are “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” “Mommie Dearest,” “Reefer Madness” and “Terror of Tinytown.” Does that make me a cinephile?
2. Will Pfeifer | August 7th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Pat: Sure, that qualifies. It’s all about seeing something entertaining in a movie, no matter how bad that movie might be. And personally, while I agree PLAN 9 is no masterpiece, I do think it’s a fascinating piece of filmmaking — and not just because it’s bad, either. It’s an oddly personal film — almost like one of Ed Wood’s home movies.
3. Mack | August 7th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Well I hope I count as a cinephile because I love the movie going experience more than most anything. I just don’t love love the idea of ALL movies.
4. Will Pfeifer | August 7th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

Mack, you sound like a cinephile to me. I don’t think the idea is to love all the movies, it’s just to love the idea of movies. Believe me, I know most movies are terrible. It’s just that every so often…
5. hokumboy | August 7th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

With the influx of “reality television” I’ve come to love movies even more than ever before.
6. Leaf Like A Tree | August 7th, 2008 at 7:02 pm

I still love women. Good luck to you geeks.
7. LD | August 8th, 2008 at 8:09 am

How about those spine tingling moments, when you have the perfect combination of moment and music?

When the rebel ships come out of hyper space and make their run on the death star (the shield is still up!) in Return of the Jedi.

When Hawkeye takes the shot on Maj Duncan, so he does not have to suffer at the hands of the Ottawa and then turns to pursue Magua.
8. Jerry | August 10th, 2008 at 12:58 am

I am a cinephile for sure. For better or worse. It can be a costly habit, but very rewarding when you watch and discover a great film.

As for spine-tingling moments, I do live for them. One of my favorites is Roy Batty’s speech at the end of Blade Runner.

Another classic is the D-Day landing from the beginning of Saving Private Ryan.

Two of the best ever.
9. Log Lincoln | August 10th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

Nobody loves movies more than you. Anybody named “Movie Man” is the No. 1 Movie Lover of all time.