What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

Almost everybody likes movies. Renting a video or going to the cinema are popular pursuits for the majority of people. But some take their love of movies a step beyond a casual interest; some become dangerously obsessed with these celluloid creatures; some become film buffs.

What triggers this? Nobody's born wanting to see the latest Coen Brothers flick. Suddenly one day, a mild-mannered person will go from wanting to see Julia Roberts latest to wanting to forget about Roberts and find out who wrote, directed and edited the thing. Thus you become more cultured, more informed, more boring to your friends.

We're all film buffs. A few here have created a film web site. Others have searched the net for one. We want to talk movies. But what film (though it may not be a film, a brother, a cousin, a grand-uncle?) made you take the next step?

Nobody's born a buff!


Mine was Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. Before that movie I loved films. I went the odd week. It was often the topic of conversation with friends. But like most, I treated old films with moderate hatred. I'd never seen one, but like gorgonzola my stomach wasn't strong enough to give it a chance. My cinematic diet was the likes of Top Gun and Days of Thunder - anything that the box office told me to like. Then like an angel from heaven came Olivia Hussey...

Romeo and Juliet was made in the 60s. That's so long ago my Dad might even have been cool back then. Actresses couldn't be sexy because they were so old. What I failed to comprehend in my stupid brain is that film is the only substance that can stall time. No matter how old she was when I was watching it Olivia Hussey was young during the movie's making and she was very, very fine.

Then it happenedI wanted to know more about this young lady and her peers. I checked out more 60s films, more 50s films, more and more films. And I'm still looking for somebody to be as gorgeous as Hussey but I've had a lot of fun watching these golden oldies along the way.

So that's how I became a buff. Like everything in life, sex played a lead role.

How did you become so interested in film?

Excellent thread. I'm not a film buff, however, so I can only partially answer the question. To be a "film buff," I'll have to see a lot more than I have. For now, I'm just an enthusiast of sorts.

Anyway, one movie that comes to mind when thinking of films that sparked a broader interest in the whole big "thing" is 12 Angry Men. Both versions (unless there's a third I don't know of) had the same effect on me: I couldn't help but appreciate the craft of filmmaking after having seen them. Movies like that serve as a refreshment of sorts. I'd say The Shawshank Redemption was another film that made me love, in addition to the film itself, film in general, more than I had before.

Actually, this site turned me into one. :) I'm still not as buff as some of you, but I have taste..

Great choices, TWT. :)

My dad showed me Goodfellas when I was eleven years old, and since then I've been hooked. He showed it to me that summer, and the next year in school (I was in seventh grade that year), I sat next to someone named Kifah, whose love and interest in movies pretty much lit the spark that my dad had started. Kifah and I would stay up all night every friday at his house and watch classics that his mom had left in a box in the basement, and I saw stuff like His Girl Friday, Adam's Rib, Some Like it Hot, Charade, The Grapes of Wrath, Night of the Hunter, Kubrick's older stuff, and Citizen Kane. We started reading everything we could about movies, making top ten lists, writing our own reviews - it was a hobby, then a passion, and now it's fully expanded to become the main interest in my life. I wouldn't, or couldn't trade the cinema for anything in the world - my love is too deep and my desire to see something flower before me on a giant screen in a darkened room is too strong for me to ever even consider giving up.

Kifah and I still see each other every weekend (he moved), and we see movies and talk about them and try to stump each other. Last year I met Marky (Zweedorf), and his interest in movies has allowed me to learn and love them even more, and he, Kifah, and I are always arguing, shouting, even getting fights over what we think is good, what we would love to see happen, what we want to do.

Mark loves Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch and will defend them until the day he dies, and has an obsession with his collection. Kifah refuses to surrender to any type of empty feature - he despises everything that doesn't advance the art form in some way or another, however miniscule that advance may be. And everyone here already knows what I like and don't like, pretty much.

What a lovely thread. :)

Well... I can say what got me hooked in horror movies...
I first saw 'A Nightmare On Elm Street" when i was 6, and from then on i have loved horror movies! (i am now 14)

If I am a movie buff, then the biggest step for me was getting access to the internet. After that, I could look up info on any major motion picture almost instantly. I could talk to people all over the world about movies. What a treat.

The film that made me passionate about cinema more than any other was Instinct. If it wasn't for that flick, I wouldn't have spent half as much time in the last 3 years watching, discussing and analyzing movies as I have. I know I wouldn't have started the Yahoo movie club I started in '99, nor would I have had the motivation to help make it the most active Yahoo movie club for a while in 1999 and 2000.

However, Instinct also brought a lot of negativity for me; it made me more conscious of how many "takers" there are, and how much we all need to change if we will be anywhere near as free as we think we are. Also, it made me have much less respect for the tastes of the majority of moviegoers.

Well, how embarrassing that the two films that did it for me are comedies.

First, I remember seeing Blazing Saddles at a drive-in (when it was new) with me and my brother in the back seat, and my parents in the front seat. My mom had her foot up on the dashboard, and was laughing so hard through most of the movie that she was crying and gasping for air. I had never seen her so silly for such an extended period of time -- I'd never seen her have so much fun before (or since, I think).

Plus, I fell in love with Gene Wilder during that showing. (Those eyes! Those blue eyes!) It changed so many things for me as a young teen.

The other movie I remember (probably within a year of the Blazing Saddles episode) was watching Arsenic and Old Lace with my mom when it was on TV one dreary, rainy Sunday afternoon. She told me I'd really like it, and I was suspicious. (Black and white? Old or dead actors? I dunno....)

I adored it. She adored it too. We had a blast. It's still one of my absolute favorite movies. And it made me realize that movies really were more than just light entertainment.

Shortly after these things, I began a quest to become a film director, which culminated in me attending Carnegie-Mellon for writing and being on the verge of transferring into the drama department while I was a young married thang.

But we were too poor to send us both to college, so I took time off, and then I was pregnant with your very own TWTCommish [Yoda].

And the rest is history. :)

Linda the Long-Winded :)

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

I feel like I was born a buff.
My parents are huge film buffs. I was exposed to movies, and the appreciation of the art, at a very early age. When my parents went to rent a video, they would have my sisters and I pick out our own movies.

First, before we could read, we went by the cover of the jackets.

Then we dicovered the plot summeries.

Then, we started formulating opinions about actors, studios, directors, and the like.

I think the first movie that wowed all three of us, was To Kill A Mockingbird.

We went through a Shirley Temple stage, too. We watched them all; The Good Ship Lollypop, The Little Princess, The Bluebird of Happiness.

The Wizard of Oz had a huge impact on us as well. After that, we watched every Judy Garland musical there was.

Then of course our tastes separated. I started getting into the crime/dramas and murder/mysteries. Sarah stuck with the musicals, and Emily got heavy into foreign film.

I know I'll be a fiim buff for the rest of my life, and I have my parents to thank.:)

AFI's top 100 list (from 1998?) was the catalyst for me, rather than a specific movie. Before that, I was mainly a casual watcher who didn't own a single movie (and wouldn't think to).

I had actually seen many of the movies on the list before it was released, but I was never really interested in learning more about movies until afterward.

Up until, say 14, I had a general interest in movies, as most, but didn't make it any more than that.

However, in Forth Form ( not sure the American equivalent), I decided to write our class speech on American Beauty.
I quite a while researching, looking at various critics' opinions, renting the movie myself a couple of times, and I think that's when I could first really appreciate film construction, and understand that deeper meaning lurking within.

Ever since then ( I'm 16 now), I've simply been seeing as much as I can possibly see.

I wouldn't call myself a "film buff"... I'm picky about a lot of movies and I don't see everything. I'm an entertainment buff.

A horror buff too because horror movies started me on the path. Just like Spooky Man, I saw A Nightmare On Elm Street at a young age (I think I was 3 or 4) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 & 2 and Friday the 13th and all of the others...

Actually, I did watch a lot of other movies around that age too because we had several movie channels often. I remember seeing films like Project X (which should be a porno film), and Ratboy, The Boy Who Could Fly, The Monster Squad, Porkys, Throw Momma From The Train, The Goonies, The Gate, Mannequin, Ernest Goes To Camp, and so many others. I'm sure there's more that only my subconcious remembers. We have so many movies videotaped and I had a TV in my room since 2, so I've always been in front of the TV. If I wasn't watching movies, I was watching Nickelodeon, or MTV, or The Monkees TV show when it reran in the 80s.

I'm just crammed with so many images, people, characters, life situations, fantasies, scary things, sexual visuals, and I'm still after so much more. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to give it all back when I write and direct my own movies. I want to use my brain to entertain.

Star Wars trilogy
E.T.
Indiana Jones trilogy
the muppet Movie
Back to the Future
Howard the Duck
Superman 1, 2, and 3
....The list goes on and on. I can't pick just one!

i think seeing two movies a week (in theatres) did it for me

You have just mentioned the two movies that my sisters and I thought know one had seen but us. Thank you for proving me wrong.:)
The Boy Who Could Fly...does it get anymore of a childhood favorite, than that? :nope:

I love Boy Who Could Fly, The. I watched it as a kid all the time plus I just bought it on VHS about 4 months ago and watch it again, still good hasn't really lost anything.

I use to ride that type of bike and play GiJOE's all damn day. The movie was film right around were I live. The Part were she falls try to get the flower on the brige I can see that from the bottom of my block and I drive by it daily.

Watching films wise, it was Jurassic Park.

I was in third grade and we were buying action figures and everything long before we'd seen the film, and apart from Milo and Otis it is the first film I can remember seeing in a cinema. I had read the books (the novel and the book of the film) and one day, by pure luck it seems, it was in the newspaper, this big advertisement and my Dad took me in to town and there was a huge line and by luck we got the last two tickets. The place was packed and I was blown away by everything about it and I loved the darkened room and the huge screen and the loud noises. I loved it.

Filmmaking wise, I would have to say that there's a collection. I don't remember the first one I saw that was just like, I want to do that, although it could very well be Jurassic Park. Screenwriting wise, I got my first bout of insperation from Bowfinger. Lawrence of Arabia, A Clockwork Orange and Run Lola Run have all been recent insperations, but if there was a film I had to pin-point it would probably be Jurassic Park

It was this great new technology called VCRs that did it for me. When my mom got one, we started snatching up all the Hitchcock and Carey Grant we could find (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story.) From there it was on to American Movie Classics on cable.

I first broke out of old movies, though, when an artsy girlfriend of mine took me to Terminator 2 just for fun. It was the first 'guy' movie I ever really saw and I loved it. Now I even like Jackie Chan!

I don't really think it was seeing any particular movie, rather a combination of events.

Whilst i have been into movies for a long time i never really saw them as that imortant to me. Yes i did sneak in to see both Dracula (Gary Oldman verison) and T2 before i was legally allowed to see them but never really went out of my way to see anything.

When i was 17/18 i learnt to drive and was able to visit the multiplex in the nearest city rather than the dodgy one-screen effort (That would only show films that were guaranteed to sell out) in our town. This opened up a whole new world of films for me to see. Then later that year i went to uni where they had 2 multiplexes and a student-run cinema all within 10 minutes of my house. Without this student cinema i would never have discovered films like The Crow, True Romance, Usual Suspects and Clerks. Ive never looked back since.

Ever since then i have made a point of knowing what films are coming out and when and finding out obscure facts about them.

Also leaving home gave me the opportunity to buy videos/DVDs without having the "What have you bought now?" or "How many this time?" conversations.

Now i go to the cinema twice or more a week and buy movies on DVD on a scarily regular basis!

I don't consider myself to be a buff either. I would say that I have become an enthusiast within the last 6 months, largely do to the internet (IMDB) and being able to get movies for free from the University.

However, at 15, I saw the first movie that sparked my interest; A Clockwork Orange. I ended up buying the movie (my first movie purchase) shortly after I saw it and only then did I finally learn that the director was someone by the name of Stanley Kubrick.

It wasn't until Lost Highway that I was so deeply marked (and moved) again. It has been a very slow and gradual course. As I said, only in the last 6 months has my interest really kicked into hyperthrust, and I don't know that there was any one movie that really spawned that.

I guess I've pretty much been one all my llife. My mom told me how when I was a little girl, 2, 3 years old, I would sit and watch Mary Poppins over and over again. I figured out how to work the VCR so I could watch my favorite parts and start it up on my own wthout asking my mom for help. I've always been quite fascinated with movies. They're a release and way to make you feel happy when youre feeling a bit crappy, or sometimes even crappier. Well, I guess ever since Mary Poppins caught my fancy I've been a lover of cinema ever since.

hitchcock for me........i read a huge biography on him when i was just a little kid. his movies and his style just thrilled me.

from there i discovered a passion for movies of the 30's and 40's. i would say i'm a classic's buff. :yup:

In the mid eighties I was just a young fella doing my paper run and stopped into a friends during it one arvo. There we watched 'ALIENS' and it changed everything for me. I'd previously had the crap scared outof me by a number of movies as a child (Jaws changed swimming forever etc) and never was a movie buff until that moment.
Later it was a steady diet of Arnie movies and sci-fi that continued my growth towards junkie-hood. Now, I'm a lost cause.

Gamma Rays.

Gamma rays turned me into a film buff, t'wern't a single movie or even group of movies at all. Unfortunately film buffing was the only superpower I received from this bombardment.

What a RIP-OFF! HOLDEN SMASH!!!

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...c279_egret.gif http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...hulk_color.jpg http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...0engineers.jpg http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...62315722,2.jpg

gamma rays you say? you were one of those kids with their noses on the screen? well holden, if it would make me as smart as you i'd submit to an intensive gamma blast. ;)

Well that would be the very first movie I ever seen. Thing is I don't remember the first movie I've ever seen.

i dont consider myself a film buff either. but when im around my friends, it seems like i know everything about film. Saving Private Ryan turned me to the film side of the world

:rolleyes: I became a movie buff when I was about... 12 after I saw "The Mummy" (end of 1999). The thing that I liked most was the special effects and the story. From that day on, I've been watching movies with great special effects and stories. I'm a HUGE fan of horror, and science-fiction with drama movies. :D

i remeber watching movies at a very young age, all kinds of movies. there was not any paticular movie i saw that really brought me into being a movie freak but there are a few i can think of. almost all of kubrick's films, a lot of movies from john carpenter, and a lot of really bad late 70's and early 80's campy movies like meatballs and things like that.

Ok, it's cute and all, but can anyone who is only 14 years old really be a movie buff? ;D

I've always just loved movies. I got to go to theaters maybe three or four times a year (and then the drive-in 'cause I was the youngest of nine and it was the only way to make everyone happy without exhausting my dad's bank account--I grew up on a farm, that explains a lot ;)) and I never, never, never got to see any "kid" movies. I was the lowest on the totem pole, and even when we got a VCR (after renting machines for over three years) I was stuck watching whatever my brothers and sisters wanted to watch. I didn't see a Disney movie until I was about 13, but I saw all kinds of R-rated movies before I was nine (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Eddie Murphy Raw, etc., etc.). You get my drift.

It sounds horrible (and probably explains a lot about my psychological health :eek: ), but ever since then, I've always loved movies, all movies. Even Disney--I wound up watching most of their animated features during my teens. Most of my life I've watched just about anything I could get my hands on, no matter how old I happened to be at the time :p.

Mary Lo

I guess Scarface was out, huh?

anyone of any age can be a film buff as long as they know enough about film. If you watch alot of movies after your turn to the cinema side, you can become a film buff pretty quickly.

i've been a movie buff since i was like 11. The movie that really made me a film buff was probaly Jurassic Park. It's one of my all time fav movies along with Lord of the Rings.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5191TZS18DL.jpg

Woody Allen Hannah and Her Sisters
I did not know what I was impressed with then, but it was the combination of comedy and dramatic tension the film created. .

Great question, but it's really difficult to say. Perhaps The Adventures of Baron Munchausen just for the impression it made at the time.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

Suspiria completely opened my eyes as to what horror could be, and that definitely made me a huge horror fan. But, In the Mood For Love and Studio Ghibli made me a film buff in general I think! :)

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

:)

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

More of a fan than a buff. I would say sci-fi/horror moives like Alien and The Thing

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

I can't even recall what film started this. I just remember my parents always watched films and I caught on to it.

I have always watched a lot of films.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

I remember the exact moment. I was probably seven, going on eight. There was a new movie my dad was particularly interested in seeing: How the West Was Won. Back then, movie theaters resembled actual theaters, with a curtain drawn in front of the screen as people arrived to claim seats. There was so old-timey introduction music and singing going on. But then the curtain drew back and the theme music began to play. Like this:

x. I was lost.

I wouldn't say I was turned into a "buff" per se (which I interpret as a non-professional who's devoted a lot of study to a subject). I'd say: movie addict. One a day; that's what I need.

(I'll spare you the full details of the memory, which I have written up in my personal movie blog. Link in the About tab of my profile. Sorry if I'm violating any issues with self-promotion. No advertising, data capture, or other nonsense on that site.)

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

Interesting question since I've nearly always been a movie fan. I'm not quite sure what "buff" is, but I do see movies in a theater about once a week, probably also see a couple in the basement screen in that same week. Theater movies have the added benefit of the "dinner and a movie" thing. I have several nearby theaters that have food halls next to them, so it makes the movie into a night out.

When I was a kid, we had a nearby theater that had cheap matinee tickets for kids on weekends, so that was a big neighborhood attraction.

Being a city guy, I also like live music, theater and even opera, all of which occupy a similar part of my brain.

My backwards question would be why would I NOT be a film buff, as well as a "bufff" for music, live theater, etc. Any of them beats sitting at home watching Law and Order re-runs.

Buffy turned me into a buff

Automobile buffing (wax on, wax off) turned me into a buff.
(And Joe Weider just turned me buff.)

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

Coincidentally, I'm on a Jerry Goldsmith binge right now and it was a movie with one of HIS scores that got me into it: Chinatown, followed immediately by Sunset Boulevard. I was 16. But it was a Dwight Schrute quote that lead me to catalog them first.


"I know everything about film. I've seen over 240 of them."


Imagine my surprise when I spent days cataloging movies I remembered watching to find it total up to 445! And now I'm nearly at 3200.

Psycho, I think. But I did grow up watching movies, my father would go through 4-5 a day and work to them, so I just assumed this was normal.

I think a lot of film buffs eschew the term, due to the principle that the educated are those who know how ignorant they are. Historically, I haven't liked labeling myself that way, or with any similar term like aficionado...

...but these days I think I'm okay with it, in most contexts. Not here, where the baseline is so high. But really, talk to any random friend or person who you don't know because of movies, who you know incidentally or through some unrelated interest, and just start asking them questions about their favorites, how often they see films, or a few select classics. You'll probably be shocked by how little they've seen, without even getting into how they approach it, whether they analyze it the way you would if you were taking it seriously as an art form, etc.

People I think of as particularly smart and mature for their age won't have gotten around to seeing Alien, or whatever. And people who are articulate and intelligent in one context will be completely unable to explain why they do or don't like certain things.

Seriously, try it, as an experiment. Do that a few times and you'll probably be a lot more comfortable considering yourself a "film buff." Because the natural use of the term is in the broad context of all people, not in the narrow context of a film enthusiast forum.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

ironically it was Reservoir Dogs, which I would now describe as my least favourite film

Sunshine (2007)

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

Casablanca, at around age 8... I spoke of this elsewhere, but that's where it all changed for me, that's where I thought, oh my, this is more than I thought movies were or could be.

Also - I'll use film buff in a writeup or essay just to have a quick shorthand word - but call me whatever, a film nut - heck, film fool would be fine too. But to what Yoda was saying, even a film fool can surprise himself by how little he knows.

Around 13-some years ago I decide to do the Alt-Oscar thing. I was in my late 40s when the notion came to me, and I thought I'd seen so many films and was a such a smarty pants, that it would be a breeze, I'd whip this out in a few months. Ha Ha Ha, yeah, I was quickly humbled. I spent the first year in research and watchings alone and realized it would always be a work in progress (at the time I decided to start posting, I'd still not seen the Apu Trilogy which was in the process of being restored, I couldn't find Soy Cuba (finally caught it when Filmstruck launched), still had never seen a Naruse film, and still had a lot of learn about world cinema, even the cinema of my northern neighbors (first saw Mon oncle Antoine in 2016). On and on and on... I realized for all the movies I'd seen and studied; I still had a looooong way to go.

But some 13-years later, maybe I've earned the title of film buff. And the journey to get there began with Casablanca.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

The Godfather
On The Waterfront


and eventually, I branched out to more foreign and independent movies.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

I think the first movie I saw was Bugsy Malone, so probably that one.


Not that I remember a single thing about it.

I was movie obsessed since I was a child, and the first movie I saw was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so probably that one.

But it was Taxi Driver that changed my understanding of what cinema could be and made me obsess with it as an art form.

It happened in multiple stages.


If you need an exact movie that was the tipping point, it was Project A-KO.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-ko_Poster.jpg



Although a campy action-comedy-anime, and not 'fine cinema' by most standards, I still love it. It was the first time I truly realized that there was a whole world of movies I'd never seen, from all corners of the world.

The full story (I started a new post because my phone has a nasty habit of erasing text as I write it on this site), going by movies:

Clue (first movie I fell in love with)
Little Shop of Horrors
Blazing Saddles
Beauty and the Beast (Disney)
Project A-KO
The Shining
High Noon
Laura (1944)
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Iron Man
Spirited Away
Let the Right One In

That's my evolution in a nutshell. (And this isn't even my final form...)

Oh yeah....Casablanca. I was already a fan of foreign and underground "films" (they were actually on celluloid then), mainly as a college aged, pretentious, art fan. Hollywood was not good enough for me.

Then I heard from a fellow art-movie fan that Casablanca was pretty good, in spite of being American and starring Bogie and Bergman...too "Hollywood" for me. I took a date to see it. Aside from loving the movie, other things about that evening went well. American movies were also redeemed. I saw a lot more of them after that.

I owe that evening to Casablanca and that song. It really is a terrific movie, great dialog, terrific stars, great cinematography, especially the soft focus on Bergman, morally urgent plot during war time, unforgettable, one of the most nearly perfect of all movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-p6xFMGK7g

I grew up watching the blockbusters of the 70’s and 80’s, i.e. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, etc., but the movie that turned me into an official cinephile was JFK. Truly one of the greatest of all time.

Mark

As far back as I can remember... I've always lifted heavy film canisters to become a film buff!

But really, I've always loved film. Probably when I was kid four, five, six... something like that it was definitely The Empire Strikes Back.

After that the film that really REALLY got me into exploring films was Howard Hawks' Sergeant York. I had also loved John Wayne and old westerns and had seen Hawks' Rio Bravo and El Dorado by that point, but I really didn't think about them critically until I saw Sergeant York when I was in eighth grade

Bonnie and Clyde too either later on in eighth grade or the summer between eighth and ninth grade.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

For a significant period of my life films were important cultural touchstones, social events for discussion, and sites of meaning-making for me (back in the old days when going to the movies was a big deal). Now, they're largely a distraction. And I don't know enough theory, I don't have enough technical knowledge, I haven't seen enough films overall, and I haven't seriously attempted to digest major genres in a way, to offer any pretense to being serious about it. I have not, for example, engaged in the Clockwork Orange style viewing marathons that many people here describe.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

Police Story, for sure

It's Blade Runner for me I've never watched anything as transporting, immersive, atmospheric or that has impacted my tastes as much that movie. My movie obsession is likely an attempt to recreate or better the experience that it provided.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

A multi-faceted question.

I saw lots of movies growing up, liked lots of them, but there was a point when it changed. I was a pretentious college student and the college introduced a Sunday night "film series" (they were on film then...16 mm film) sponsored by the Art Department. Everybody I knew that was at least as pretentious as I was went and was seen by the campus art glitterati. The first time I went, they were showing Fellini's 8 1/2. I was not all that fond of it but I did feel like I'd just gone through a Rite of Passage.....seeing Fellini. No more cheesy "Hollywood" crap for me, just Art Films.

So what happened? Once I'd polished my movie resume and seen many of the likes of Bergman, Fellini, Citizen Kane, etc, I could relax a bit and enjoy the spectacle of The Ten Commandments or Ben Hur, even from a sneering distance. Fortunately, I've mellowed since the Sunday Film Series in my college.

Leon

This begs a few questions for me. Obviously there is unspoken criteria here, and if you know my autism: I just have to tackle that.

This leads to questions like: how many movies must you see? How many of them should be critically-acclaimed? How well must you be able to articulate your opinions? Of course, to answer the first question, I'd say 500 for a... junior level... is appropriate, in conjunction with the other criteria. But this might also be inaccurate. Like I mentioned before, when I first decided to become a film buff and catalogued every movie I had seen, I reached 445. And before then, I wasn't worried about quality or articulation. I suppose it would help if you KNEW you had seen 500, because before the tally I thought I had only seen about 200.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

Well, you can call yourself that at any point, even at the start with the film that changed everything for a person. Wherever you are on the journey. (junior level, sure)

But personally, I say it takes at least 10 to 20 thousand movies watched, some fair amount of film study, and you must be at least 60 years old to really, truly have achieved that state of being. Call it, Film Buff Absoluta.

And I say that with tongue in check, but only just. When I hit my 60s, maybe a little before that, it was like a switch went off in my head, and I had this moment of clarity - I was like Doctor McCoy in that terrible Star Trek episode where he knew exactly how to fix Spock's brain. "Of course, of course.... I finally see, I finally understand." Not that I liked every movie, or every style or every director, but at least I felt I "got" what they were doing and why.

Which was preferable to what I was as a teenager...

https://youtu.be/VMosihNXzq4?si=wZwt6LsNFYc31hdI

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

The shitty one I made. I realized I needed to hone my skills, and with no formal training nor hope for formal training, I had an idea; watch people who are awesome, and learn their techniques. That meant watching films meticulously, then "Making of" docos, then searching for tips online, and reading books, and watching instructional videos.

As I went down the rabbit hole of watching films ad continuum, my love for watching films grew until it became engrained in my brain to just sit there and watch, even without the intent to learn.

However, as I watched for entertainment, I picked up on things subconsciously, and improved anyway, and started to grow until that method stagnated and I needed something more. That did not diminish my love for watching films, and it still persists to this day.

Re: What movie turned you into a film buff?
 

The commentary on his Nosferatu by Werner Herzog, that was it for me.

If you have Netflix, they have a docuseries called Movies That Made Us what chronicles how some movies came to be. I only made it a few episodes before I didn't renew it again. I found it highly interesting and made me even more excited for the process and the sitting there watching.

Thanks for the heads up, if i ever do Netflix again i hope i remember this :)