At the Movies - on the small screen

In my futile attempts to educate myself in a little less of the boring business and more of the arty things, I decided to do a film course. I have a masters in business marketing which I use in a dull as dish water job that I’m bored out of my brain at but as it pays me nicely (not a lot but enough for my needs), and I dont have to work too hard during the day, its stress free and I get to enjoy the life I like with the freedom the money I earn gives me but that’s all beside the point, This film course is one of my many attempts to do something for the creative cultural arty side of me - something thats fundamental to ensuring adequate brain functioning.

In the search for this course, I looked high and low in old Melbourne town and could not find anything that really interested me so when you cant find a course you buy a book don’t you, well I do. So off I went to A&R and purchased the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die from 2004. For the last two years I have been using this book to educate myself more in my cinema viewing and its helping me to know and understand films that I may not of been aware of or would of noticed previously.

I initially reviewed this book to see how many of the 1001 films in it I had seen, I was pretty strict about it, not only must I of seen it but I must also be able to remember things from it, so if is says West Side Story, which I know I’ve seen but I cant remember who wins in the end and who gets the girl etc, its not marked off as seen. So far I have ‘seen’ 436, so there is still a long way to go.

I have Foxtel and World Movies so seeing new movies from the book is relatively easy – I usually get to see 4 or 5 new ones a month that I havent seen before and it doesn’t cost me anything extra.

I know in a year or two I will run out of movies on Foxtel that I havent seen and will have to start looking for other ways of seeing movies but at the moment its ok.

This method has exposed me to some truly beautiful and amazing movies I wouldn’t of normally seen (The Man with the Movie Camera, The Bicycle Thief, The Battle of Algiers, Das Boot, Once Upon a Time in America), some duds (Ninotchka, Zabriskie Point, A Christmas Story, Barry Lyndon), some weird ones (Haxan, An Andulusian Dog, Freaks, Koyaanisqatsi, Old Boy), and a few that were just plain delightful (Beat the Devil, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Project A Part II).

All in all its been a pleasant experience and keeps me occupied rather than being miserable and mopey when I am home alone for extended periods, which is often the case.

I did see the 1925 version Phantom of the Opera a couple of years ago at the Regent Theatre in Collins St as part of MIFF, with a live Wurlitzer organ, which was a truly remarkable experience. I only went as this Phantom was in my book but this adventure gave me one of the most amazing cinema experiences I have ever had. Everybody should try it, though I think it worked really well as a thriller, if it was a romance, I’d doubt the organ would of made too much of a difference. I’m not much of romance fan, when a new friend asked me the other day what I wanted from a movie, I replied I wanted the movie to hurt me in some way, that raw emotional reaction you have to something – laughter, anger, happiness, sadness, joy, that’s what I want, the ‘oh that’s nice’ or ‘its alright’ doesn’t really do it for me anymore.

Why did I bring this up, well on Monday night I was watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and was bored stiff, the music was dull, the story was ordinary and not much happened and it offered nothing of interest in it that would make me want to watch it again – yes there was a little bit of younger days celeb spotting but I’m still scratching my head to work out how it was included in this list, mind there are a couple of movies that fall into this category too but its all an experience though isnt it.