The movie that got you interested in movies

krudler

Simple question really, what movie was it that turned you on to the entire concept of filmmaking? for me its Batman,was the first movie I saw in the cinema (1989) and even though I'd always liked watching stuff on video at home like Star Wars and Indy and Back to the Future, it was when the curtains opened, the WB logo appeared and Danny Elfmans' magnificent score started blaring that I instantly went from viewer to fan. It was a pretty cool first cinema visit and I remember being so excited I almost felt sick, the buzz in the queue, the smell of popcorn and sweets and carpet that only a cinema can smell like, the audience was electric and I thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever experienced at that time (hey I was 8 )

Otis Driftwood

The first movie I remember seeing in the cinema was Ghostbusters.

It frightened the hell out of me but I reckon its definitly responsible for my life long love affair with horror cinema(although obviously its not a horror).

As a child,going to the cinema was a monumental thing and it only happened on special occasions like birthdays.The whole buzz of it was just amazing,the sounds,the smells,everything about the experience.

Its something that an awful lot of people take for granted nowadays but going to the cinema is one of the resounding memories I have as a child and it really was a simple pleasure.

krudler

Going to the cinema really felt like more of an event back then, nowadays I go on my days off when I'm bored, cinemas have barely any atmosphere these days either since they're all multiplexes, the old cinema we used to go to was a converted theatre and has cool curtains and lights and really had a sense of magic about it, now they're all usually in a shopping centre or surrounded by KFC's and Burger Kings

Futurism

After watching Schindlers List I was hooked. Unfortunately I've stopped watching TV and in effect, films. Rarely watch any these days.

TheIrishGrover

Well, I remember seeing ET in the cinema. Must've been 10 or 11 I suppose. I remember thinking that the scene where Eliot is in the grass witing for ET and he gets startled. All the quick camera cuts from different angles. I remember then thinking that that was pretty cool. That it really felt like you were being caught startled too.

I still think that a cinematographer and editor are really underappreciated in movies. I mean where would Wong Kar-Wai be without Christopher Doyle? Look at the new stylings of speilberg (Even if he's not at his best these days) with Janusz Kaminski.


I'm a big fan nowadays (For the last 20 years or so) of foreign films, esp contemporary Asian films. I had watched foreign films before but never REALLY got into them until I caught Chungking Express of C4 round about 1990/1991 and was just hooked (Ahhhhh Faye Wong .


Good thread OP. Sure beats the usual "What's yer favourite whatever" thread

Bannana

The Lion King did it for me. First movie as a kid that I actually loved...one of those films you would just watch over and over. And when Simba

was thrown off the cliff and killed

made me cry. Still makes me an ickle sad now

teamB_macro

For me it was Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991) and the The Secret Garden (1993). Then there was Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, 2001).

Running Bing

Interestingly Kill Bill had a pretty big effect on me. I couldnt believe how fresh and original it seemed and it got me absolutely hooked on Asian cinema and rarer cult films.


Metropolis was also pretty big for me as it was the film that made me realise silent films could be incredible too and the seventh seal was probably the first film I have ever seen that really drove home the point to me that film can be more than just entertainment.

So those three for me.

johnny_ultimate

I'd say there's been a couple of ones at different times in my life.

First was Toy Story when I was round seven or eight. I remember sitting there on release day and just absolutely loving it. I don't think I'd yet had that magical feeling sitting there in a cinema, but Toy Story hit me like a brick for some reason, and I annoyed the hell out of my parents watching it many, many times when it was released on VHS.

When I was around fourteen, Donnie Darko was a revelation. As someone who loved cinema, but was often restricted to mainstream stuff due to my age, DD was the first time I'd seen such a refreshing, rich and intelligent indie. I loved the script, the imagery, everything. Tried to get everyone I spoke to to watch it but it was years before I actually had a proper conversation with anyone about it because they either didn't like or hadn't heard of it. I still like the film, even though over viewing has decreased its impact a bit (I used to watch it every month religiously). But I have rarely been as excited about a film as I was after watching that.

Spirited Away I watched soon after that too, which is the only time I sat stunned in my seat afterwards. It was such a rich, hypnotic experience, and kick started my continuing love for all things Japanese.

(oddly, both of these films I watched because of Empire's incessant promotion of them. Shame I can't even read that magazine anymore because it's gone to the dogs).

And finally I'd say Persona had a massive impact relatively recently. I'd been interested in foreign and arthouse cinema before, but Persona was something else, a film so intelligent, so visually extraordinary and so unique that it truly me made me reconsider what cinema was capable of as an artform.

There are probably more films too, but those four are the ones I remember in particular for having a significant impact on my taste and interest in cinema!

S.M.B.

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

I'm a big fan nowadays (For the last 20 years or so) of foreign films, esp contemporary Asian films. I had watched foreign films before but never REALLY got into them until I caught Chungking Express of C4 round about 1990/1991 and was just hooked (Ahhhhh Faye Wong .

How did you manage that? Was Chungking Express not released in the mid nineties? I'm currently slowly working through everything Christopher Doyle has worked on.

And to answer the OPs question, I couldn't put it down to the one film. I guess falling in love with movies was a very slow process for me, from looking at the videos of Star Wars and Indiana Jones in the 80's to early visits to the cinema in the late 80's/early 90's. It might not have been until I lived within walking distance of a cinema 98/99 before my interest really grew.

Frank Bullitt

All dogs go to heaven,first film i saw in the cinema and i still remember it

candy-gal1

first few movies i ever remember seeing in the cinema were the lion king, aladin, beauty and the beast, and robin hood, the 1 with kevin costner!
think i was about 5!
and have loved loved loved movies, in cinema or dvd, ever since!

my top movies now would prob be,

moulin rouge
pretty woman
titanic
theres something about mary

to name a few!

TheIrishGrover

S.M.B. wrote: »

How did you manage that? Was Chungking Express not released in the mid nineties? I'm currently slowly working through everything Christopher Doyle has worked on.

And to answer the OPs question, I couldn't put it down to the one film. I guess falling in love with movies was a very slow process for me, from looking at the videos of Star Wars and Indiana Jones in the 80's to early visits to the cinema in the late 80's/early 90's. It might not have been until I lived within walking distance of a cinema 98/99 before my interest really grew.

Actually, you are right. Spot on.... It was actually As Tears Go By on C4 (Back when it wasn't all Big Brother.) Remember thinking it looked great. Forgot about it for a couple of years and THEN Chungking really kicked it off. You were right, 94/95.(Now that you remind me, I think I had to go to Dublin to see it in the Screen cinema.) Christopher Doyle, what a lunatic genius. I mean, I even watched Lady In The Water just because he did the cinematography!

Someone mentioned Spirited Away earlier. It was Mononoke that got me interested in Anime in a big way. But now I look back on it, I think it's my second least favourite Miyazaki (Howl's my least favourite)

I also remember the intro to the Lion King. Sitting in the cinema and watching that intro and them when that boom came and "THE LION KING" title came up on the screen I remember looking around the cinema stunned thinking " Did everyone see that? It f*cking ROCKED!!!!"

the_syco

Um, Land Before Time. That or any random JCVD / Arnie film

Joycey

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

And finally I'd say Persona had a massive impact relatively recently. I'd been interested in foreign and arthouse cinema before, but Persona was something else, a film so intelligent, so visually extraordinary and so unique that it truly me made me reconsider what cinema was capable of as an artform.

As someone said above, The Seventh Seal is absolutely amazing. Most definitely in my top ten films.

Cant really remember what films majorly got me into cinema, was shown many an art film when I was way too young to understand them. Recently, the films which have most affected me have been ones attempting to portray life as it really is:
Kiarostami in general, especially A Taste of Cherry
The Seventh Seal
Short Cuts by Altman, which I think is heavily influenced by Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera which is a monument of filmaking

The single best piece of art (or anything else for that matter) IMO, which came out of the holocaust, apart from maybe Different Trains by Steve Reich, is Resnais' Night and Fog (available on youtube). Its a documentary, only half an hour long, and is amazingly powerful.

ScumLord

Labyrinth is a film I always remember from my childhood. No film stuck with me like that one.

krudler

ScumLord wrote: »

Labyrinth is a film I always remember from my childhood. No film stuck with me like that one.

Great movie too, Bowie is excellent in it and a young Jennifer Connelly was my first crush as a kid

brennaldo

i remember watching jurassic park very young and falling in love with it, i suddenly then made dinosaurs my childhood intrest in a way

anyone who knows me personally whould know i was obsessed with them

mylove

The Breakfast Club is the one that did it for me..

RIP Mr. Hughes.. =(

Joeyjoejo

First film I remember seeing in cinema was Ghostbusters in Ormonde cinema in Stillorgan...loved it!

Then it was the usual Star Wars, Superman I & II, Indiana Jones that were always on at Christmas that had a big impact on me...Loved watching them each year!

Also remember the Wheelers in Return to Oz freaking me out as a kid!

Saw Blues Brothers for the first time when I was twelve....couldn't stop watching it...great characters, music and amazingly ridiculous car chase at the end!

Saw the Shining when was about 15 and got hooked on Kubrick!

They're sort of the standout moments that come to mind that got me into movies over the years!

Oh yeah and used to love those stop motion skeletons that came of the ground in Jason & the Argonauts (I think it was that movie anyway!?!)

Handsome Bob

When I was a kid Terminator was huge. I remember every time I'd go to Bray my brothers would run to the arcade to play the Terminator game. They would also want to go to the fast food joint that had Terminator posters on the wall. They had the toys, the t-shirts, the games, everything. However my mother wouldn't let me watch the actual film! :pac: So yeah I became obsessed and when I finally saw it Arnie scared me ****less! Then when I saw T2 Arnie was an absolute hero, probably THE hero. I think that's what got me into film really, I just saw what was capable in film.

Greyfox

LZ5by5 wrote: »

When I was a kid Terminator was huge.
Then when I saw T2 Arnie was an absolute hero, probably THE hero. I think that's what got me into film really, I just saw what was capable in film.

Yeah definitely agree with this, the Terminator storyline had me hooked and definitely started my obsession with film.

KungPao

Definitley movies like Flight of the Navigator and The Neverending Story helped me realise what a film is i.e. the difference between regular TV and cinema.

I was about 4 or 5 when these came out, and they blew my young mind

rednik

My first memory of the cinema was Kellys Heroes and to this day I still love watching this movie. It has everything. A great cast, great action and great comic moments. All in all a great film.

BrianD3

My interest gradually built up over the years. A major factor in my interest were the Moviedrome seasons on BBC 2. IIRC Moviedrome was on weekday nights during the summer (so no school the next day!)

As well as the films themselves I loved watching the introductions by Alex Cox and later, Mark Cousins.

humanji

I've always been mad into films, but the one that really means a lot to me and is the first one that I remember watching is Paradise Alley, written and directed by Sylvester Stallone back in the day. It's a fairly terrible film by most standards, but when I was young, I got it on video and used to watch it over and over. For a while (from maybe the age of 10 to my mid-twenties) I completely forgot about it, but I always had the theme tune in my head, not knowing what it was from. My brother overheard me humming it and told me what it was from. I had to run straight out and buy the DVD. I still think it's a classic.

I'm also into filmmaking and the film that is mostly responsible for that is The Evil Dead. Not so much the film, but the makinging of documentaries and director commentaries on the DVD's that made me realise how simple it was to make a movie and how much fun it looked like. I guess it's also what got me into special effects too. That and buying the entire Tom Savini back-catelogue of films.

red dave

Two movies got me really and they were "Gremlins" and "Goonies"

Joeyjoejo

+1 on the goonies

Mink

This brings me back! I loved the following films but there were parts that sort of freaked me out as a child but it amazed me how they could have that effect on me!

1) Anything with Jim Henson puppetry - particularly: The Labyrinth & The Dark Crystal (which I still think is one of the coolest films ever & totally trippy)
2) The Neverending Story
3) Return to Oz

I'm going to say Gremlins cos it scared the sh1te out of me, still can't watch it!

In my late teens, probably American Beauty

titan18

As a child I grew up with the Disney films.The Lion King,Aladdin,Pocahontas etc.They would have had an effect on me.

The Labyrinth and The Neverending Story, as mentioned above, would have too.

Robin Hood and Waterworld were the first grown-up films that I remember seeing, along with Dragon:The Bruce Lee Story.

keefg

My first "proper" movie was Empire Strikes Back in 1980 (I remember how I cried because I thought Han was dead ).

The first film that really got me interested in cinematography and the whole "how it's made" mentality was The Untouchables in 1987.

Before then I just chewed on my popcorn and enjoyed the film like everyone else, after that I would study the camera angles, lighting & music score and how it all fitted together.

K4t

First film I saw in the cinema was Toy Story and I rememebr being blown away by it. Got the Buzz Lightyear toy ('to infinity and beyond!') Yeah those Toy Story films hold a special place in my heart. I haven't seen a better animated film since apart from the first Shrek.

Also LA Confidential really got me started on serious films. It's hard to watch crime thrillers/dramas anymore because I always compare them to LA Con and they usually come up short.

Ironman76

1st post ever. Hi folks.

The movie that got me into movies was Back to the Future. Completely blew me away.

The one that got me interested in the technical aspects such as Direction, Dialogue, Casting etc was Goodfellas.

TheIrishGrover

Ironman76 wrote: »

1st post ever. Hi folks.

The movie that got me into movies was Back to the Future. Completely blew me away.

The one that got me interested in the technical aspects such as Direction, Dialogue, Casting etc was Goodfellas.

Welcome ironman. You made a few friends there with Goodfellas. It is a masterpiece. I know there have been longer and more intricate one-shots than the copa cabana (Russian Arc) but for the sheer energy, you can't beat that shot I think. It really made you see, in one shot, the attraction of being a mobster.