Posts by Austin Collins5

Mark Wood79 said:I mean, Americans have definitely imported a ton of "intellectual property" from Europe over the years, picking up plenty of ideas, but I wouldn't go quite that far.
The father of Hollywood is still D.W. Griffith, whose "Intolerance" had a massive impact on major European figures like Fritz Lang, Carl Theodor Dreyer, or Sergei Eisenstein, so I guess you could say the influence flows both ways.

It's just about building on existing ideas, really. It doesn't matter where you started.

Anyway, here's a link to a six-part documentary series that covers his work in Europe.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115134/...dits#directors

It’s a pretty deep dive into how film evolved, packed with tons of examples and clips.

Richard Wilson4 said:Say whatever you want, but Hollywood movies have basically owned the 20th and 21st centuries. Everything else is just an outlier...

Look, in Europe after WWII, things changed. Nowadays, Europe just doesn't have the distribution muscle to go toe-to-toe with Americans. Most of those filmmakers are stuck in this weird, almost subservient relationship with the US industry. Plus, let's be real—it's way cheaper to buy films in bulk than one by one. Movies are just another commodity; someone picks up a few at Cannes and then trickle them out. Europe is too fragmented into these tiny little productions, which makes it a nightmare to actually market or push what they've made. I guess the truth is there are plenty of films worth watching, people just don't even know they exist.

Roger Allen3 said:did you catch that post from Mark Wood79?

Yeah, I did. But look, I’ve been around this block long enough to see how things are shifting globally, and I guess that's why I write the way I do.

Serious cinema is losing ground to Hollywood big-budget stuff. We're seeing fewer and fewer quality films, and what's worse, young directors are just chasing the money. They don't respect tradition; they just conform. To use "your" slang, they're turning to the dark side.

And I'm just not into it. Neither is Rosenbaum. This random list is really for people who think Jim Jarmusch is the absolute peak of filmmaking. Don't get me wrong, he isn't bad, but I guess there's just not enough substance there.

Still, the list covers everything you actually ought to watch—Dovzhenko, Ren Clair, Chitilov, Marker, Howard Hawks, Robertine Fuller, Japanese directors... It’s basically a cross-section of a century of serious cinema.

Maybe throw in a popcorn emoji at the end for good measure.

Look, some random guy didn't direct it, not Francis Ford Coppola, so I don't know why you all seem so worked up about it.🤣

Like I said before, this list is clearly meant for people who haven't watched anything besides mainstream Hollywood blockbusters.

What if the snob actually knows their stuff about movies, like if they've basically dedicated most of their life to it?

Film is a visual medium, plain and simple. To me, *Love Streams* feels like a collection of meaningful snapshots—just take the images you love and stitch them together into a movie. I don't think I've ever seen a more powerful or raw depiction of the differences between men and women, or that strange, flowing energy between them. And honestly, I love Cassavetes because he just absolutely tears his characters apart just to prove they can love.

I’ll throw out a few titles that would probably kill it at the AMC if they actually bothered to put them on the regular schedule.

Bathory by Jakubiska
The last two from Sverak
The Last Menzel (I served the King)

But honestly, if you keep feeding the crowd the exact same crap for 30 or 40 years, there's just no chance. It’s way easier to just buy up 100 films at Cannes and call it a day.

wiredbison82 said:It’s a pretty snobby list and honestly, totally irrelevant. Nothing new here.

This list is basically just trying to convince some mindless American cinephile that there's actually more to film than their own backyard.

And what you guys are watching is just garbage pushed by the current distribution system. Unfortunately, Americans have the strongest logistics, so even though Europe has plenty of talent, they just don't have the massive capital needed to really compete.

Trust me on this one, I know how it works.

Gerald Barrett25 said:Someone actually put together a list of the best movies. Please tell me you're joking! 😁

Instead of arguing over the actual movies on this list, I’d much rather talk about the criteria used to pick them in the first place. I mean, I'd really love to know what kind of logic lands Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" or Steven Spielberg's "A.I." on here... though seeing that last one makes it pretty obvious how much they're just grabbing silent classics like "Greed" to look smart. And then there's Abbas Kiarostami... he feels more like a cultural phenomenon created by his producers than someone working at a Leo Tolstoy level of craft. I respect Kiarostami, sure, but three of his films on here? Give me a break.

Or why things like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," "Love Streams," "F for Fake," and "Eclipse" made the cut while "Blowup" was left out... and so on.

Then you've got four works from Orson Welles. But "The Third Man" isn't even there. And finally... where the hell is David Lynch?

Like I said, any attempt to establish a cinematic canon—the way people do with literature—should probably start with some "full disclosure" regarding the rules. To me, this whole list just looks like it was tossed together like scrap wood for a bonfire.

"Love Streams" is absolute garbage, "F for Fake" is the best Orson Welles work, and if you want to understand why, you'd have to grasp why Abbas Kiarostami is even on this list.

But how am I supposed to explain something to you that you just don't see? It's like trying to sell someone on Medjugorje when they clearly aren't interested.

I have to admit, watching that was pretty rough. But from what I’ve gathered online, they're starting to get those farmers markets popping up in all the major cities, so maybe things are finally looking up.

Stalker, this disaster is even bigger than Titanic. You’ve got three heads all happening at once, trying to poke at an uncertain future by throwing walnuts at a white ribbon, all while having some guide. It just messes with a confused mind. This isn't even a movie; I guess it's just life.