Cinematic Heritage / True Works of Art

Once a friend said that my opinions about films are too imperious.

He claimed that I do not know how to discuss movies at all. Instead, I give lectures and do not care at all about other people's opinions because I know everything anyway.

Balderdash. I am very interested in the opinion of others. The thing is that other people's opinions are mostly just a bunch of nonsense.

But yeah, I've been letting my standards way too low for the past 5+ years. I really want to get back to the roots, so I'm working on a piece of text about the pillars of cinema. No idea when I'll finish it (if ever) but I'm a little bit jaded with myself for overrating decent movies and definitely irritated by so many people loving crap.

The other day, @Swan told me that he's seen every Marvel film made up to now. And this guy tries to pass as a non-normie...

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Being kind to others never goes out of style.

Feels like a trolling post, but here goes…

What’s crap is obviously going to different between anyone, including cinephiles. After all, you had more then a few films in your recent top 300 that had some head scratchers that some may call “crap”. For example, star Crash, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Don’t Torture a Duckling ( I’m not a Fulci fan), A Woman under the Influence (not crap per se, just massively over rated). You’re just as capable of loving “crap” as anyone else you’d levy that charge against. I don’t get why you’re so irritated over this, either. Surely you’re aware you not some gate keeper to the film community who need to protect us from ourselves with our movie watching habits. Let people enjoy their films without the need to criticize just for the sake of feeding what some perceive as an over inflated ego. 🤷

You haven’t really demonstrated to me that you “know” more than everyone else. Sure, you know the history very well, although there are many of us who do too. The advantage you seem to mostly have, and have flaunted on occasion is that you’ve watched over 10,000 films, but that isn’t as impressive as you think, to some.
I find myself in between on thinking its impressive but also wonder the cost of closing yourself off to watch these films in the decade it took to do so.

That being said, I still enjoy reading your reviews on films and other posts. I still think you’re pretty well informed compared to most, not all, and I’ve been working my way through your top 300 when I can (some aren’t easy to find, and there may be one or two I may not care to watch. I’m looking at you 3 Days of a Blind Girl )
👀

But not entirely different. There are communities with more agreements about certain points than other communities. At the point that we find Citizen Kane included in many community lists of great films, we have reason to suspect that maybe this isn't just a happy accident.

We're all gate keepers. The purpose of conversation is influence. When we speak we seek to move. When we listen we seek to be moved. I want to be protected from what is bad. I want to guide you towards what is good.



Art is a particularly difficult case, but that's why it is a fun case. It is a challenge. We climb. We fall. We climb again. We appeal to standards. We promiscuously mix our subjectivity in the collective bowl of discussion in the hopes of finding intersubjectivity, a connection, an agreement. Intersubjectivity gives us a foothold/handhold to keep climbing. On occasion we find a formulation of words which resonates, which serves as a proof (at least for a period of time). That's about as close to the summit as most of us get. Others are more ambitious and develop systematic theories and categories. The conversation never ends.



We might as well be honest about what we're doing. If I say something is "my opinion," this is just a polite way of saying "I believe that this is true" (which means I think you are wrong, in some way, if you disagree with me). Mr. Minio is a Meanio, but that's more of a question of style than function. Here you are, after all, gatekeeping Minio's gatekeeping!

I won’t get into a long winded discussion when you very obviously and perhaps, purposely, ignored the point of my post haha. No, we aren’t all Gate Keepers.
To sum up my point , for those it was TL,DR:
No one should be telling anyone what to watch and what to enjoy when it comes to cinema, and no one should ever be concerned with what others watch tot he point they feel like being both dismissive and condescending.

Sure we are.


Richard Weaver put it nicely.

Let us now turn to your rhetoric.

What do you think we're doing when we rate films? What do you think we're doing when recommend them or complain about them? What do you think you're doing here? When I seek the opinions of others, I am seeking influence. When I offer my opinion I am attempt to influence. In either case, it's gatekeeping. I am either seeking a gatekeeper or serving as one. Language is sermonic.

That's style, not content. Is Minio a Meanio? Perhaps. Is Minio an ineffective rhetorician? Perhaps. But these are different questions.



I am all for someone telling me what to watch, but do it with goodwill and in a manner that is constructive to the conversation. Give me that adept gatekeeper who is more like a bartender than that jaded employee at the DMV, but do give me a gatekeeper.

I guess that means you're no longer allowed to be opinionated then?

Criticizing opinions isn't the same as being dismissive and condescending.

Just because someone offers a differing opinion doesn't mean they're attacking you.

An opinion itself? Nope, I agree there’s nothing wrong with that. An opinion where one is both dismissive and condescending? Plenty wrong with that.

There’s a difference between the two. It greatly depends on how one approaches it.
Telling someone that they can “do better” on their own top 100 list of the past decade is the latter.

They probably can, though, if I said that.

Heh. That’s actually funny.
Please understand, despite how I view some your posts, I do enjoy most of them. Particularly the reviews, as mentioned before.

Glad to know I'm not completely intolerable.

little known trivia that these lines are in the early drafts of Freak Nasty's "Da' Dip" club mix.

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

An elegant song from a more civilized age, but it could not cope with the seismic bass of "Make Those Move."

Not completely, no.