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Author Topic: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It  (Read 2103 times)

1SO

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Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« on: June 29, 2011, 12:13:10 AM »

I'm sorry. One of the worst films I've endured in the name of "family night."

I get that. I can totally see having that reaction. It's the kind of film where you have to know who your chef is for the evening. The films faults - lack of plot, corny humor - are really endearing when you know it's Hawks.
Saraband is the same for Bergman. Heaven helps anybody who makes this their first Bergman, but for the fans it's the most comfy pair of slippers.

I wonder if people can name some other examples. I'm about to watch Donovan's Reef which probably does the same with John Ford.

A tricky Top 5 Subject, but I think it could yield some fun examples. 5 Films you think are Great, but that's because you know the style of the filmmaker. Films you think an outsider going in cold would despise.

sdedalus

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2011, 12:22:45 AM »
An auteurist would say all of them, because knowing the context of a director's work always makes a film more interesting.  Not always better, but more interesting for sure.
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Junior

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2011, 12:25:35 AM »
As always, Borzage's Moonrise works best when you know his typical thing and how it's informing the noir genre.

Sunshine, too, is informed by Boyle's previous and later films. If you don't know what his movies are generally about (the thrill of life, responding to an element of great power in one's life {drugs, zombies, love, nature}, the necessity of other people) the final third seems silly.

Hot Fuzz can seem like a boring action movie if you don't know what's going on.

The Social Network, in a way. It would be easy to dismiss a Facebook movie if you didn't know who wrote and directed it.

The Searchers could be seen as strictly a racist film if you don't know Ford and what he likes to focus on in the film. It's a lot more about being apart from the community in order to help it.
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roujin

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2011, 06:57:10 AM »
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HollyHarry

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2011, 05:15:20 PM »

The Searchers could be seen as strictly a racist film if you don't know Ford

I don't think so.

This seems a little chicken or the egg to me. With something like The Searchers, this is one of the films that solidifies who he is as an artist. You watch it to know Ford, in other words, as opposed to it helping to know Ford in watching it. I think this thread pertains more to films that could be considered "minor".

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2011, 07:19:32 PM »
Great films stand on their own.

1SO

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2011, 08:56:44 PM »
Great films stand on their own.
I wish that were true and a large chunk of my Top 100 do transcend the talent behind the scenes, but if I stood by that statement my reviews would be even grumpier than they already are. It's like saying a Great film doesn't make you come to it or meet you half way. A great film falls right into your lap and melds with your brain.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2011, 09:01:36 PM »
I might revisit Hatari!, but I highly doubt I'm gonna give Hawks a pass just because he's Hawks. I certainty think about films in the context of who made them as it can help me understand certain sensibilities, but I'll admit when they don't work for me.

sdedalus

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2011, 09:29:08 PM »
Great films stand on their own.

There's no reason why that should be.

I find that knowing more about things makes them more enjoyable.  This is one of the many ways film is like baseball.
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Totoro

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Re: Top 5 Great Films Where it Helps to Know Who Made It
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2011, 10:37:42 PM »
I feel that you should be conscious of the context of the film, what country, what year it was made, but knowing who made it doesn't really matter.