What one film convinced you that cinema is genuine art?

[begin_within]

Was it one of these?

A Man Escaped (1956)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)
All About Eve (1950)
Apocalypse Now (1980)
Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966)
The Bicycle Thief (1949)
The Birth of A Nation (1915)
Casablanca (1942)
Chinatown (1974)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Conformist (1970)
E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)
East of Eden (1955)
El Norte (1983)
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
From Here To Eternity (1953)
The Godfather (1972)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
The Graduate (1967)
Harold and Maude (1970)
I Am Cuba (1964)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Lion In Winter (1968)
Los Olvidados (1950)
Psycho (1960)
The Rules of The Game (1939)
The Seven Samurai (1954)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Singin' In The Rain (1952)
Some Like it Hot (1960)
Star Wars (1977)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Tokyo Story (1953)
2001: A Space Oddyssey (1968)
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Wild Strawberries (1957)

If not one of those, what was it?

[QMPMom]

1. None of the above.

When in University I took an Intro To Film class as an elective to get myself away from things medical. One of the films was Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl.

Not that I agreed with Nazi ideology at all, but that was one amazing piece of film work.

If you haven't seen it, you should. If possible, see it in the original German with subtitles.

Riefenstahl was a genius filmaker.

[ghostsofgiants]

2. Hmmm...might have been Seven.

[idgiehkt]

3. I can't remember back that far...maybe Sophie's Choice

Some other films that I think are art are The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Perfect Murder, The Cold Room, Leaving Normal, Silkwood, Pulp Fiction, Mask, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Survivors.

[leftofthedial]

4. Chinatown

[Auggie]

39. Yes, Chinatown. First film I can remember seeing as a

young adult that blew me away.

[Archae]

5. None of the above.

"Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey." :crazy:

(Hey, I like that movie!)

[ghostsofgiants]

10. Such a non non non non non non non-heinous movie.

[CanuckAmok]

6. Vanishing Point, Apocalypse Now, Wings of Desire, and 2001.

[blitzen]

7. Aguirre n/t

[Neoma]

8. Anything Hitchcock.

[dubeskin]

9. Fahrenheit 9/11

It was the best damn movie ever made, and everyone knows it's art. But seriousl, all those sound really, good, and I should watch them. I've never really considered cinema art, but maybe these movies would convince me.

[ghostsofgiants]

11. Never considered cinema art?

You're definitely watching the wrong movies.

[pfitz59]

12. Eraserhead

Boy and His Dog
Freaks
Hellraiser
Its Alive
Them
Sampson Versus the Vampire Women
and oh so many more.......

[Karenca]

13. Winged Migration.

nt

[cleofus1]

14. the earliest that showed me art as cinema

was
jean le florette
and manon of the spring...

i think those are the correct titles...

[Burma Jones]

27. Those films are incredible

Tragedy worthy of Sophocles and Shakespere

Beautifully filmed too.........

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. Nope

It was "The Last Picture Show."

Bogdanovich sees like a photographer.

[Bridget Burke]

16. I still have fond memories of "Juliet of the Spirits"

And my delight in discovering that "Art Films" didn't have to be Black & White works of Scandinavian Angst.

I don't recall that Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen made me thing "this is art!" But I do remember amazement. An intelligent spectacle!

[LostinVA]

17. Cannonball Run

[Courtesy Flush]

18. I'd say Fiddler on the Roof and Schindler's List deserve to be on the list

[noonwitch]

19. Fantasia

I saw it when I was really young and have always loved it.

[sweetheart]

20. Amadeus nt

[jobycom]

23. My choice, too. nt

[kwassa]

21. Borat

no, not really.

It was really "Jackass, the Movie".

Actually, most films, some 98% of them, are not worth watching even for free. I feel as if I lost two valuble hours out of my life.

Film as high art is the rare exception. Film as escapist pop culture is the norm. It is very hard to take film seriously as an art form.

My two faves out of your list are the Seven Samaurai, and Aguire, Wrath of God.

[anarch]

22. Apocalypse Pooh

wherein the soundtrack of the beginning of Apocalypse Now! is played over a montage of Winnie the Pooh scenes...so you get Pooh saying "Saigon...shit. Still only in Saigon." Genius, if you ask me.

[otherlander]

29. That's so emo.

:P

[Radio_Lady]

24. I was going to say Ishtar, but that was for laughs! The answer is: The 400 Blows.

[quiet.american]

25. Fellini's "8 1/2." n/t

[Drum]

26. Memento.

Also:

Baraka
Microcosmos
Ran (Kurosawa)
the Qatsi trilogy
Closer

[LaraMN]

28. Joe Dirt.

Okay, yeah, I lied. I've never even seen it- but I bet it's the antithesis of which you speak.
David Spade in any incarnation...
:scared:

[Burma Jones]

30. The First Film which gave me the "aestthetic experience" was

Apocalypse Now.........

I was wiped out for a day after seeing that.

Brazil, Cuckoo's Nest and, yes, The Exorcist also hit me like a sledgehammer.

[otherlander]

31. October Sky.

[terrya]

32. "Citizen Kane"

Without a doubt.

[NewJeffCT]

33. Behind the Green Door

It was very persuasive.

[bertha katzenengel]

34. The Fisher King n/t

[warrens]

35. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

[u4ic]

36. Zentropa n/t

[querelle]

37. Swept Away

NOT the fiasco directed by Guy Ritchie and starring his wife.(Who's That Girl)? The original version made in 1974 by Lina Wertmüller. BTW, the original title was "Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August". Still one of the best and funniest films I have ever seen.

Q

[El Fuego]

38. "Plan 9 from Outer Space"

Joking...

[AngryAmish]

40. The Disorderlies

[Book Lover]

41. The Devil is a Woman

[KatyaR]

42. Theodore Dreyer's "La Passion de Jean d'Arc"--

absolutely AMAZING silent film with an unbelievable history. Get the http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Joan-Arc-Criterion-Collection/dp/0780022343">Criterion Collection version and watch it with the choral soundtrack by Richard Einhorn, "Voices of Light," featuring Anonymous 4. It is absolutely chilling.

Another one would be "The Red Shoes," also a Criterion Collection film. Amazing cinematography and performances.

Foreign films would be "Un Coeur en Hiver" and "Raise the Red Lantern"--both wonderful films that I don't think are available on DVD ("Red Lantern" has been released recently but I hear it's a really crappy copy).

I love "Singing in the Rain"--it's my favorite film, tied with "White Christmas." "An American in Paris" is great, too (I was into musicals as a kid--I can't help it, I still love 'em.).

"Cabinets of Dr. Caligari" was a movie I fell in love with as a kid. I recommended it to a lot of people, but no one ever seemed as impressed by it as I was. "Carnival of Souls" is in another category all together--a "B" film that is really quite good in a weird and freaky way. I love the zombies!

As far as modern movies, I think Branaugh's "Dead Again" is amazing--I've watched it dozens of times and seem to find something new about it every time. Others would be "Fisher King" and the first "Star Wars."

Oh, and for fun, "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye at his finest--"the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

48. I second the recommendation for The Passion of Joan of Arc!

Amazing film, and timeless, even though it was made in 1928.

[pitohui]

43. a clockwork orange/if double feature, taxi driver, midnight cowboy

i feel dated now

probably the one that affected my life and my outlook the most was midnight cowboy, altho this film is terribly dated now

i kept thinking that if dustin hoffman and jon voight could just break thru their inhibitions and get it on, it would change the outcome, but no such change was possible in those days

[ncrainbowgrrl]

44. Before the Rain, Pi, The believer

ma vie en rose

[Paladin]

45. That's A Fabulous List, But I Have To Admit.....

...that the first movie that popped into my mind regarding "cinema as art" was Bergman's "The Virgin Spring." Changed my life.....

By the way---whose movie list is that, anyway? Glad to see "Shawshank" made the cut.....

[bridgit]

46. well i mean there's so many though for the sake of reply: The Seashell...

...and the Clergyman was directed in 1927 by Germaine Dulac, after a surrealist screenplay by Antonin Artaud.
The first authentic surrealistic movie.

The Seashell and The Clergyman-part01

The Seashell and The Clergyman-part02

The Seashell and The Clergyman-part03

certain early works of: Pier Paolo Pasolini, especially The Gospel According To St. Matthew, which i couldn't find a clip of; B&W, an atheist himself still contains some of the most precious expressions = find it if you can

Pier Paolo Pasolini - Poesia a Marylin Monroe

and of course they such as: Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou - 1928

and other stuff...

surrealismo

[Lautremont]

47. Probably an Antonioni movie.

I guess the first "art movie" I saw was Blow Up - same as a lot of people. I was very young, but realized that the mimes playing tennis Meant Something Else - something other than mimes simply playing tennis, as mimes will do.

I also remember going to see Being There at the age of eight, and figuring out the allegory in that one too. (Not saying I was so smart - it's pretty broad.) That gave me the idea that there was something happening you had to think about to get to, and not only that, I liked it. So maybe Being There, maybe Blow Up, maybe a combination of both.

I reegarded the decision to see Being There as a very mature one at the time, because I had the option of staying home and watching my very favourite movie: Grand Theft Auto, starring (and directed by) Ron Howard. Still probably Howard's best directorial effort, by the way, and yes, that's including Night Shift.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

49. The first film that actually made me conscious of how a director and

editor put things together was Battleship Potemkin, which I saw in a film class in college. Before that, movies were just there.

[S n o w b a l l]

50. A Patch of Blue (1965)

With Sidney Poitier & Shelley Winters. Had a profound effect on me and I was only 9.

[Tyler Durden]

51. Seven Beauties.

Lina Wertmuller is a genius, and Giancarlo Giannini...enough cannot be said.

OH yeah.