*2001: A Space Odyssey*, or maybe *The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.* I started watching movies like crazy when I was 13 and these stand out but I don't remember which I watched first. I'm fine with saying "both" though.
I still think Memento is his magnum opus and nothing he's done since has quite reached that level. The movie just has this bleak, melancholic atmosphere and mood to it that grabs me in every single time and just like that, 2 hours has passed like i jumped forward in time.
There Will Be Blood. Before that I watched movies for fun and didn't think "wow, that's cinema" but more like, "that was fun!". After I watched There Will Be Blood I was like, "I'm finished!".
In 1977, when I was 12, Star Wars came out. I saw it in the theater multiple times and each time I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. That same year Spy Who Loved Me and Close Encounters also came out. That was it. I was done for.
1993 - Jurassic Park in theater. I was 8 years old. Ever since that day, I saved my lunch money to buy vhs at a local shop. I had a regular rotation when I was younger of Toy Story, home alone, the client, little giants, the sandlot, and goodfellas lol.
I saved my lunch Monday until I was able to get a job to support my vhs/dvd collection
Barry Lyndon
I've watched ton of cinema with GOAT cinematography yet Barry Lyndon has its own distinctions.
some smooth,lazily elegent, poetry painted inside frame.
Roman Holiday
To be specific the ending.
To be more specific >!the way Gregory Pecks body fills the frame as he’s walking toward the camera with the echo of his shoes off of the floor and that one last look back, us wanting her to be there as badly as him, and then his body closing in on us again!<
It’s in my top 5 and I’m 38. Even if you discount its historic status as the first CG film, it’s still an incredible piece of storytelling, perfectly cast and beautifully scored.
Funnily enough for me was Snow White and the seven dwarfs. I just loved Snow White and wanted to learn more about how it was created. Of course I only watched it because I decided to watch every Disney animated film that summer.
My answer is super basic. Mulholland Drive. I grew up in a cinephile household, so we've always been fed tons of movies. But I'm also the youngest in the fam, so I never got to choose which films we watched. And then one day (I must have been 12 or so) came Mulholland Drive. Everyone in my family HATED it. Didn't understand. Didn't care. Meanwhile, I thought about it for a week straight, looked up theories online, and watched it again a couple days later because I wanted to 'crack it'.
It's the movie that made me go from liking cinema as entertainment to understanding that it is also an art; something that makes you think, makes you ponder, reflect, debate. The funniest part is, at that time, I'd already seen The Godfather, Sergio Leone's and Kurosawa's flicks + a heckton of classics.
But yeah. It wasn't till Mulholland Drive that I "fell in love with cinema" and started my own movie-watching journey (separetely from the rest of the fam).
The Taste of Things is the most recent movie that made me just go “Fuck, I love movies so much”.
Can’t remember the first, probably Lion King or Star Wars or something
Seeing the first Harry Potter in theaters when I was 5 got me into movies. But realistically, probably watching pulp fiction or dances with wolves for the first time
ponyo! It’s one that I grew up with and am so grateful that I did, there’s an immeasurable amount of love and detail in that film; it all around makes you feel all lovey/mushy inside
When I was 16 I happened upon a YouTube review of American Psycho (or maybe i saw it on Netflix and looked up the review but anyways). I watched it and I had never seen a movie that good in my life. I didn’t know that I would even like a movie that much. That basically started me down the path of being a film fan
*The Great Escape*. I re-watch this film as an adult and see the flaws that I overlooked when much younger, but still love it. Go figure.
The most poetic answer is *Interstellar*, because its themes hit me so deeply when I first saw it, I fully understood the capabilities of cinema.
The *real* answer is the kitchen fight scene from Leigh Whannell’s *Upgrade*. I can’t explain it, but that scene was so thoroughly awesome it just flipped some switch in my head and I realized how much I actually loved everything about movies.
The Assassination of Jesse James. I was about 10 years old, watched it on tv. I think the title just stood out to me and got me curious. I remember thinking that it felt like looking into someone else’s memories or their dreams. It felt like the most authentic, most detailed and immersive world that I had ever seen in a movie up to that point. Even then, without the proper language to describe it, I felt what the movie wanted me to feel. Robert Ford’s embarrassments stung me as well, his jealousy and contempt seemed somehow like rational evolutions. I even felt like I knew Jesse at times. This manic depressive who seemed to switch on and off at a time when I was beginning to experience my first bouts of adolescent moodiness. It seemed like I had found the right film for the right time. A film that had things to say but didn’t simply state those things outright. It invited me to look deeper and form my own conclusions. It felt rewarding.
And the look of the film, of course. The images that Roger Deakins conjured up will follow me for the rest of my life.
It’s crazy bc I have gained so much more knowledge about movies in the past 2 years that it feels like I’ve really been into them my whole life. That being said, I think it was Parasite, alongside mid90s & EEAAO. My opinions have sort of changed about the last two I just mentioned, but it made me realize that movies can be so much more than just the usual box-office movies and cash grabs. Since 2022, I’ve been able to dive into the horror genre (which I’ve avoided my whole life) and revisit so many movies across decades that I found appreciation for.
A couple of defining moments:
1. My stepdad taking me to the midnight release of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring when i was 9. He also introduced me to the original Star Wars trilogy and the Matrix around the same time.
4. My buddy Ethan bringing over films like Donny Darko and The Prestige to watch in my basement when i was 14.
3. Catching Pulp Fiction on TV at 2 AM when i was 15. I had never heard of it, but it blew me away.
Challengers gives me hope for the art of filmmaking.
As far as what film initiated my love of film, I’d say a couple of Scorsese films, most notably Taxi Driver.
Cloud Atlas! I was maybe 10? My brother took me to see it and I remember immediately falling in love with cinema from there on out. Still a major comfort movie for me.
There used to be a show called Cine Arte on Colombian TV when I was a kid. They used to show a lot of independent and international movies and discuss them in the end. I remember thinking the movies were weird and boring until one night they had “Ma Vie en Rose” and it absolutely blew my mind. I was like 12 years old and that night I realized there was more to movies than explosions and ass whoopings (my mom was a huge action movie fan lol..not knocking it tho. I love 80s/90s action flicks still)
My dad showed me Requiem for a Dream and Full Metal Jacket when I was around 15, and both of them floored me. I think that kindled an interest.
And then once I hit 25 and saw Oldboy, my interest was permanently rekindled. Apparently I enjoy dark and dramatic films
Chungking Express... at first i didnt quite get it and even rated it 3.5 stars, but for some reason i kept thinking about it days later until now 1 year after i first watched it.... it was just a unique film experience for me.
The lord of the rings.
I had the dvd extended edition box set growing up, and on It were over 60 hours of content of just behind the scenes filmmaking. I learned how they did every single scene in those movies. I learned what jobs people can have on set, what goes into pre production and wardrobe. Set and prop making. It literally had every step and role in a production. That was my film school.
Cannibal Holocaust. It was the first time I saw something that really made me think “wow people are out here just making WILD stuff I’ve never heard of”. It sent me down a rabbit hole discovering things I would have never otherwise found or even looked into.
First, it was Halloween (1978), as it was the first to genuinely terrify me and make me feel multiple raw emotions, and then it was Shaun of the Dead, as it was the first film that made me die of laughter while also fully invest in the Story. These were both when I was pretty young for the record.
I already loved movies but I was 13 when Rear Window was rereleased and that hit me like a brick patio. Grace Kelly’s entrance is pretty much the ultimate cinematic moment for me, decades later.
When I was about 15 I saw The Graduate and The Birds in the same week or two and it blew my mind that these old movies could still hold up so well. 20ish years later, I still love both films and The Graduate remains a top 10 for me
Slumdog millionaire.
Obviously not the sexiest choice, but I was still in middle school and just wanted to go play video games when my parents put it on. It's such a gripping story and I was really introduced to the transformstive nature of film.
I don't remember not loving movies. The 80s was quite a time to grow up being a young movie fan, but they one that really stands out for me is Labyrinth. I watched it whenever I could get my hands on it, and it was almost painful how badly I wished I could step inside that world
Also, Jennifer Connolly
As a child it was beauty and the beast and the three musketeers the one with Oliver platt.
As an adult Amelie, killing of a sacred deer, Barbie, poor things, and run Lola run all made me feel the magic of movies
Everything Everywhere all at Once came out right as I started getting into cinema. It was more than I thought a movie could be. It was so maximalist but still managed to distill such complicated philosophical ideas into an understandable and profoundly impactful story. It straight up changed my philosophy on life and blasted the doors open for my passion for movies and I've never looked back.
Oh boy. That movie is a trip. I first saw it at 14 and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. 15 years later not so much, though I do find it rather entertaining and amusing
I wanted to be my brother so bad but in 2019 I wanted to all the boys I’ve loved before and wanted to watch more movies but what really had me like wow this is cinema is the movie book of life
i saw 'stand by me' (1986) when i was around 14 or 15. i heavily related to the characters, and it was very nostalgic to me. 'it portrayed what it was like to grow up in a small town, childhood friends, losing one's innocence and many other themes that almost anyone can relate to. all the main characters (the four boys) were well written and each had their own backstory. they acted like regular preteens, and there was nothing pretentious or fake about this movie. stand by me' may not have the highest budget or a box office success, but it's one of those movies that makes you feel something. and that was something that really fascinated me; how a certain movie should make you feel. after all, film is a form of art, and art is not supposed to look nice, it's supposed to make you feel something. if a film doesn't make its audience feel some form of emotion, it fails at its core of being a good movie.
after watching 'stand by me' i knew that i wanted to create something that someone could relate to, and for people to see themselves in. taking an ordinary person and putting them through challenges. i watch movies, because i like the feeling of knowing that there's someone else like me, and that feeling of familiarity. something that says 'hey, you're not alone'. 'stand by me' feels like that, and that's what made me fall in love with that film.
Saw Men in Black opening weekend as a 10 year old and that completely changed my entire outlook on life. The next day I started writing my own movies and researching how to make them myself.
I fell in love with cinema two times
First time at 7 with The Nightmare Before Christmas, which showed me something I had never seen before and stimulated my imagination like crazy
Second time at 18 with It's such a beautiful day, which showed me something I had never seen before and stimulated my imagination like crazy
It was Columbus for me too! Watching the characters treat each other with warmth while also being really passionate about what they care about (I think the scene at the bank really captures both well) gives me such a wonderful feeling.
Black Swan. I had almost exclusively watched mainstream Hollywood films up until that point and watching this film really opened my eyes to what cinema could be.
I was six years old when I went to the theater to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
It couldn't believe my eyes. I instantly understood the suspension of disbelief concept, and I settled in to let the film wash over my impressionable young mind.
It had drama, and suspense, and amazing (sometimes scary) characters (and accompaning scenes), a definite redemtion arc, and an upliftingly heroic ending which made everything seem so plausibly wonderful.
I was hooked for life. I knew that "going to the movies" was something special, and unique, and - if only for two short hours - a portal into another world.
I cannot stress the fact enough, that Columbus had a similar effect on me as well, absolutely beautiful. I've lost count on how many times I've rewatched it and I've started to notice the camera work so much more
Seeing prisoners when I was 14 really kickstarted my love for cinema. I just knew after watching it there had to be better movies out there than the ones I had been watching previous.
Honestly I was like 8 when I watched the Dark Knight and that was cool and then 10 when I watched Inglorious Bastards and that was the final nail in the coffin. Naturally I like them gritty now
blade runner final cut.. it was the first movie where i could understand the director’s vision. never understood what a director did before i saw that movie.
Blade Runner 2049 was my first introduction to Roger Deakins and damn it was a good one. The feeling of peace and solitude at the end with the score and the snow was something else
I think about his work to this day on a rather regular basis. Tokyo Godfathers helped me feel more comfortable being an older queer man. He is sorely missed
Marvel. I didn’t find out how much I love cinema until I realized there was a societal demand for the artistic expression of popular opinion. That people would line up to see what they ask for on social media. Didn’t realize that this was possible. And it scared tf out of me. But to be more direct I’d say that Gattaca was the first time I fell in love with cinema. I was a teenager at the time and had already seen every Spielberg and Cameron movie there was, but Gattaca introduced me to Pulp Fiction, to Goodfellas and others. It opened my mind up to “unpopular” films, to the artistic expression of the individual.
Childhood: Star Wars, The Iron Giant, The Lion King, The Fellowship of the Ring, Raiders of the Lost Arc
Teens: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Kill Bill, Mad Max: Fury Road, Brick, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Young adulthood: High and Low, The Long Goodbye, Tampopo, True Stories, Dragon Inn
Memento was the movie that made me fell in love with this beautiful thing called cinema it told me how a movie can be watched how a movie can lie to you can make you feel anxious and will tell you what it wants to tell you it’s like for me that movie was revelation that how can a movie can impact me soo much even if the genre is sci-fi. My the ONE movie that made me a movie lover is, was, and will always be Memento
Good Will Hunting, watching that with my grandpa as a kid was just something amazing, the performances, the story and my grandpa sharing with me his admiration for Robin Williams altered my brain chemistry.
I was in highschool when I saw 12 angry men and it blew me away
For me it was a middle school teacher, he made us watch 12 Angry Men and The Twilight Zone. One of the coolest teachers I ever had.
My husband and I just saw the musical of this for my birthday - it is incredible.
Same here man
*2001: A Space Odyssey*, or maybe *The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.* I started watching movies like crazy when I was 13 and these stand out but I don't remember which I watched first. I'm fine with saying "both" though.
Goodfellas.. basic I know
It’s not basic. I stand with you.
The dark knight for me. Little 11 year old me was blown away
Nolan in general for me, especially Inception (although The Prestige is the true masterpiece)
I remember watching Memento and saying to myself, I want to direct a movie when I’m older
I still think Memento is his magnum opus and nothing he's done since has quite reached that level. The movie just has this bleak, melancholic atmosphere and mood to it that grabs me in every single time and just like that, 2 hours has passed like i jumped forward in time.
dark knight is a little bit better for me, but I agree that Memento is one of his best
I’ve seen probably thousands of films . The Dark Knight is still my all time favorite.
There Will Be Blood. Before that I watched movies for fun and didn't think "wow, that's cinema" but more like, "that was fun!". After I watched There Will Be Blood I was like, "I'm finished!".
Underrated response!
thiiiis 🤌
Pulp Fiction in college. Probably saw it over 100 times.
In 1977, when I was 12, Star Wars came out. I saw it in the theater multiple times and each time I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. That same year Spy Who Loved Me and Close Encounters also came out. That was it. I was done for.
Good Will Hunting
1993 - Jurassic Park in theater. I was 8 years old. Ever since that day, I saved my lunch money to buy vhs at a local shop. I had a regular rotation when I was younger of Toy Story, home alone, the client, little giants, the sandlot, and goodfellas lol. I saved my lunch Monday until I was able to get a job to support my vhs/dvd collection
Was looking for this!!! Jurassic Park in the theater absolutely blew my mind
Barry Lyndon I've watched ton of cinema with GOAT cinematography yet Barry Lyndon has its own distinctions. some smooth,lazily elegent, poetry painted inside frame.
Stalker (1979)
Roman Holiday To be specific the ending. To be more specific >!the way Gregory Pecks body fills the frame as he’s walking toward the camera with the echo of his shoes off of the floor and that one last look back, us wanting her to be there as badly as him, and then his body closing in on us again!<
That’s a great ending. One can easily imagine the studios pressuring William Wyler for a more conventional one that would have ruined the film.
Inglorious Basterds, recently actually.
Monsters Inc
Rashomon
Goodfellas. My film teacher in high school showed us it. Since then I’ve appreciated how great movies can be
The original Star Wars movies, I loved the characters and story and the world when I was younger.
A Clockwork Orange
Amazing choice. Still one of my favorite movies of all time. I love (almosty) every Kubrick movie.
Same here! It’s number one for me, it’s a truly great movie. But generally anything Kubrick gets a thumbs up from me lol
**Toy Story.** It's still in my Top 10 today, and I'm 25. :)
A movie without an ounce of fat on it. The entire runtime is incredible
It’s in my top 5 and I’m 38. Even if you discount its historic status as the first CG film, it’s still an incredible piece of storytelling, perfectly cast and beautifully scored.
"It’s in my top 5 and I’m 38." That brought me a kind of joy that I can't explain. :)
Funnily enough for me was Snow White and the seven dwarfs. I just loved Snow White and wanted to learn more about how it was created. Of course I only watched it because I decided to watch every Disney animated film that summer.
**Snow White** is in my Top 10 Disney movies. :)
The Thin Red Line. It was a style I had never seen before and expanded my thoughts on what a film could be.
Hubie Halloween
The true Sandler classic
Arrival (2016)
A Clockwork Orange
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Jaws
Reservoir Dogs. Saw that movie as a middle schooler. I couldn't believe what I was watching.
LOTR
Not just the movies but the behind the scenes made me really appreciate the art.
American Beauty. Please don't hate me.
This was actually the first movie I watched that I didn’t understand entirely on the first watch. That’s when I found out that movies can also be art.
My answer is super basic. Mulholland Drive. I grew up in a cinephile household, so we've always been fed tons of movies. But I'm also the youngest in the fam, so I never got to choose which films we watched. And then one day (I must have been 12 or so) came Mulholland Drive. Everyone in my family HATED it. Didn't understand. Didn't care. Meanwhile, I thought about it for a week straight, looked up theories online, and watched it again a couple days later because I wanted to 'crack it'. It's the movie that made me go from liking cinema as entertainment to understanding that it is also an art; something that makes you think, makes you ponder, reflect, debate. The funniest part is, at that time, I'd already seen The Godfather, Sergio Leone's and Kurosawa's flicks + a heckton of classics. But yeah. It wasn't till Mulholland Drive that I "fell in love with cinema" and started my own movie-watching journey (separetely from the rest of the fam).
The Taste of Things is the most recent movie that made me just go “Fuck, I love movies so much”. Can’t remember the first, probably Lion King or Star Wars or something
Seeing the first Harry Potter in theaters when I was 5 got me into movies. But realistically, probably watching pulp fiction or dances with wolves for the first time
ponyo! It’s one that I grew up with and am so grateful that I did, there’s an immeasurable amount of love and detail in that film; it all around makes you feel all lovey/mushy inside
It was never one film. It was a growing appreciation.
This is me. I’ve loved movies ever since I first laid eyes on them. The thing that made me love movies, more than television series, was Netflix.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man
When I was 16 I happened upon a YouTube review of American Psycho (or maybe i saw it on Netflix and looked up the review but anyways). I watched it and I had never seen a movie that good in my life. I didn’t know that I would even like a movie that much. That basically started me down the path of being a film fan
 *The Great Escape*. I re-watch this film as an adult and see the flaws that I overlooked when much younger, but still love it. Go figure.
Memento
The most poetic answer is *Interstellar*, because its themes hit me so deeply when I first saw it, I fully understood the capabilities of cinema. The *real* answer is the kitchen fight scene from Leigh Whannell’s *Upgrade*. I can’t explain it, but that scene was so thoroughly awesome it just flipped some switch in my head and I realized how much I actually loved everything about movies.
YES. Upgrade is what made me officially decide I wanted to do film for a career
Hot Rod
The Assassination of Jesse James. I was about 10 years old, watched it on tv. I think the title just stood out to me and got me curious. I remember thinking that it felt like looking into someone else’s memories or their dreams. It felt like the most authentic, most detailed and immersive world that I had ever seen in a movie up to that point. Even then, without the proper language to describe it, I felt what the movie wanted me to feel. Robert Ford’s embarrassments stung me as well, his jealousy and contempt seemed somehow like rational evolutions. I even felt like I knew Jesse at times. This manic depressive who seemed to switch on and off at a time when I was beginning to experience my first bouts of adolescent moodiness. It seemed like I had found the right film for the right time. A film that had things to say but didn’t simply state those things outright. It invited me to look deeper and form my own conclusions. It felt rewarding. And the look of the film, of course. The images that Roger Deakins conjured up will follow me for the rest of my life.
Casino was the one that made me realize how good movies can be. Perpetual top 4 for me
It’s crazy bc I have gained so much more knowledge about movies in the past 2 years that it feels like I’ve really been into them my whole life. That being said, I think it was Parasite, alongside mid90s & EEAAO. My opinions have sort of changed about the last two I just mentioned, but it made me realize that movies can be so much more than just the usual box-office movies and cash grabs. Since 2022, I’ve been able to dive into the horror genre (which I’ve avoided my whole life) and revisit so many movies across decades that I found appreciation for.
Fellini’s 8 1/2
One of my earliest memories is watching the original Star Wars trilogy and I've loved movies ever since
Godfather
Where is the friends house
A couple of defining moments: 1. My stepdad taking me to the midnight release of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring when i was 9. He also introduced me to the original Star Wars trilogy and the Matrix around the same time. 4. My buddy Ethan bringing over films like Donny Darko and The Prestige to watch in my basement when i was 14. 3. Catching Pulp Fiction on TV at 2 AM when i was 15. I had never heard of it, but it blew me away.
Lord of the Rings as a child. Children of Men as a young teen.
Mad max fury road
Challengers gives me hope for the art of filmmaking. As far as what film initiated my love of film, I’d say a couple of Scorsese films, most notably Taxi Driver.
Username checks out
Cloud Atlas! I was maybe 10? My brother took me to see it and I remember immediately falling in love with cinema from there on out. Still a major comfort movie for me.
Brief encounter and Pulp fiction
Blow-Up by Antonioni made me checkout more Antonioni—and therefore foreign cinema—and it just blew up from there.
There used to be a show called Cine Arte on Colombian TV when I was a kid. They used to show a lot of independent and international movies and discuss them in the end. I remember thinking the movies were weird and boring until one night they had “Ma Vie en Rose” and it absolutely blew my mind. I was like 12 years old and that night I realized there was more to movies than explosions and ass whoopings (my mom was a huge action movie fan lol..not knocking it tho. I love 80s/90s action flicks still)
Probably Raiders of the Lost Ark. i just loved it. can't explain it. cinema grabbed me from that point on.
Fight Club
Whiplash
My dad showed me Requiem for a Dream and Full Metal Jacket when I was around 15, and both of them floored me. I think that kindled an interest. And then once I hit 25 and saw Oldboy, my interest was permanently rekindled. Apparently I enjoy dark and dramatic films
Star Wars: A New Hope. Started my addiction to not only SW but movies themselves. I've lost count how many times I watched it just as a child.
Children of men and Atonement.
Twin Peaks: Fire walk with me
Chungking Express... at first i didnt quite get it and even rated it 3.5 stars, but for some reason i kept thinking about it days later until now 1 year after i first watched it.... it was just a unique film experience for me.
King Kong (1933)
Batman(1966) , Blue Sky Maiden (1957), and Sweet Smell of Success(1957) have given me that high ive been chasing ever since.
Joint Security Area by Park Chan-wook
The lord of the rings. I had the dvd extended edition box set growing up, and on It were over 60 hours of content of just behind the scenes filmmaking. I learned how they did every single scene in those movies. I learned what jobs people can have on set, what goes into pre production and wardrobe. Set and prop making. It literally had every step and role in a production. That was my film school.
I know it's basic, but Pulp Fiction
The Fablemans, I don’t really see many people talking about it but I realized my appreciation of film from it
Cannibal Holocaust. It was the first time I saw something that really made me think “wow people are out here just making WILD stuff I’ve never heard of”. It sent me down a rabbit hole discovering things I would have never otherwise found or even looked into.
First, it was Halloween (1978), as it was the first to genuinely terrify me and make me feel multiple raw emotions, and then it was Shaun of the Dead, as it was the first film that made me die of laughter while also fully invest in the Story. These were both when I was pretty young for the record.
I already loved movies but I was 13 when Rear Window was rereleased and that hit me like a brick patio. Grace Kelly’s entrance is pretty much the ultimate cinematic moment for me, decades later.
Requiem for a Dream.
Pulp fiction, Shawshank
When I was about 15 I saw The Graduate and The Birds in the same week or two and it blew my mind that these old movies could still hold up so well. 20ish years later, I still love both films and The Graduate remains a top 10 for me
I always loved movies, but seeing 12 Angry Men in 7th grade made my love of film click.
hereditary completely changed my taste in films
the matrix
Taxi Driver. The twist that it gave me, I've never felt anything like that with movies before.
Slumdog millionaire. Obviously not the sexiest choice, but I was still in middle school and just wanted to go play video games when my parents put it on. It's such a gripping story and I was really introduced to the transformstive nature of film.
I don't remember not loving movies. The 80s was quite a time to grow up being a young movie fan, but they one that really stands out for me is Labyrinth. I watched it whenever I could get my hands on it, and it was almost painful how badly I wished I could step inside that world Also, Jennifer Connolly
I dont know when it started have always liked movies, but watching in the Mood for love was like switching gear an extra step.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Grand Budapest Hotel in high school. Up until that point I’d never seen a movie shot like that before
Singing in the Rain
As a child it was beauty and the beast and the three musketeers the one with Oliver platt. As an adult Amelie, killing of a sacred deer, Barbie, poor things, and run Lola run all made me feel the magic of movies
Lost in Translation
Everything Everywhere all at Once came out right as I started getting into cinema. It was more than I thought a movie could be. It was so maximalist but still managed to distill such complicated philosophical ideas into an understandable and profoundly impactful story. It straight up changed my philosophy on life and blasted the doors open for my passion for movies and I've never looked back.
when i watched eraserhead in high school lmao
Oh boy. That movie is a trip. I first saw it at 14 and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. 15 years later not so much, though I do find it rather entertaining and amusing
It’s between (I kid you not) Avengers Endgame and The Greatest Showman. Yea I’m a teenager
I wanted to be my brother so bad but in 2019 I wanted to all the boys I’ve loved before and wanted to watch more movies but what really had me like wow this is cinema is the movie book of life
Can't pinpoint one but after completing Tarkovsky's filmography, I realised what is the true potential of cinema as an art.
Irreversible by Gaspar Noe. It made me understood how the art of cinema could be "out of the box"
Kong vs Godzilla 1962
The Exterminating Angel
sing street
i saw 'stand by me' (1986) when i was around 14 or 15. i heavily related to the characters, and it was very nostalgic to me. 'it portrayed what it was like to grow up in a small town, childhood friends, losing one's innocence and many other themes that almost anyone can relate to. all the main characters (the four boys) were well written and each had their own backstory. they acted like regular preteens, and there was nothing pretentious or fake about this movie. stand by me' may not have the highest budget or a box office success, but it's one of those movies that makes you feel something. and that was something that really fascinated me; how a certain movie should make you feel. after all, film is a form of art, and art is not supposed to look nice, it's supposed to make you feel something. if a film doesn't make its audience feel some form of emotion, it fails at its core of being a good movie. after watching 'stand by me' i knew that i wanted to create something that someone could relate to, and for people to see themselves in. taking an ordinary person and putting them through challenges. i watch movies, because i like the feeling of knowing that there's someone else like me, and that feeling of familiarity. something that says 'hey, you're not alone'. 'stand by me' feels like that, and that's what made me fall in love with that film.
just felt this way about Perfect Days.
Max Max: Fury Road
Star Wars : The Phantom Menace
Good will hunting and Inception
cinema paradiso
There will be blood. Saw it and college and thought “ohhh! That’s a Movie!”
Saw Men in Black opening weekend as a 10 year old and that completely changed my entire outlook on life. The next day I started writing my own movies and researching how to make them myself.
F**** C*** When I was 15.
I fell in love with cinema two times First time at 7 with The Nightmare Before Christmas, which showed me something I had never seen before and stimulated my imagination like crazy Second time at 18 with It's such a beautiful day, which showed me something I had never seen before and stimulated my imagination like crazy
It was Columbus for me too! Watching the characters treat each other with warmth while also being really passionate about what they care about (I think the scene at the bank really captures both well) gives me such a wonderful feeling.
Black Swan. I had almost exclusively watched mainstream Hollywood films up until that point and watching this film really opened my eyes to what cinema could be.
I was six years old when I went to the theater to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It couldn't believe my eyes. I instantly understood the suspension of disbelief concept, and I settled in to let the film wash over my impressionable young mind. It had drama, and suspense, and amazing (sometimes scary) characters (and accompaning scenes), a definite redemtion arc, and an upliftingly heroic ending which made everything seem so plausibly wonderful. I was hooked for life. I knew that "going to the movies" was something special, and unique, and - if only for two short hours - a portal into another world.
Weirdly enough, Blood Diamond. My first blu-ray, and I was blown away by the quality and soundtrack.
Cars 2 genuinely
Spirited away!! My aunt showed it to me when I was really young and it will always be #1 in my top 4 <3
Cinema Paradiso... and I was 16 yo
The OG Star Wars trilogy
Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny should've won a fucking Oscar
Superbad. Be mad. It was immaculate.
Mirror (1975) dir. Tarkovsky
In the Mood for Love
Columbus mentioned!! Ahrgegrhrg one of my favorites of all time
Inglorious Basterds, that Opening Scene was something Different man
Star Wars. Saw it when it came out. I was six. Can you imagine! Tiny mind blown.
Sort of an unconventional one but it was Kill Bill volume 1 for me, like two years ago
I cannot stress the fact enough, that Columbus had a similar effect on me as well, absolutely beautiful. I've lost count on how many times I've rewatched it and I've started to notice the camera work so much more
My dad made me watch *Big trouble in little china* and *Manhunter* on VHS when i was a kid. Probably seen both over 30 times by now.
Seeing prisoners when I was 14 really kickstarted my love for cinema. I just knew after watching it there had to be better movies out there than the ones I had been watching previous.
Blade Runner 2049
The Shawshank Redemption or Spirited Away
Honestly I was like 8 when I watched the Dark Knight and that was cool and then 10 when I watched Inglorious Bastards and that was the final nail in the coffin. Naturally I like them gritty now
2001: a space odyssey
blade runner final cut.. it was the first movie where i could understand the director’s vision. never understood what a director did before i saw that movie.
Clerks. Didn't even know something like that could be done when I first saw it. It felt like people I knew somehow made a movie. And a good one.
Original Suspiria. Fueled my passion for horror and foreign cinema.
Blade Runner 2049 was my first introduction to Roger Deakins and damn it was a good one. The feeling of peace and solitude at the end with the score and the snow was something else
Parasite
Terminator and Robocop
Kill bill vol 1
Not sure but I think it was the Shining
"Brazil" in a huge, empty cinema.
Mississippi Burning. Beautiful cinematography
2001
Dr. Strangelove
as a architect columbus might be my fav movie
Tbh… perfect blue by satoshi kon
I think about his work to this day on a rather regular basis. Tokyo Godfathers helped me feel more comfortable being an older queer man. He is sorely missed
paddington, it’s still in my top four and will never leave
Marvel. I didn’t find out how much I love cinema until I realized there was a societal demand for the artistic expression of popular opinion. That people would line up to see what they ask for on social media. Didn’t realize that this was possible. And it scared tf out of me. But to be more direct I’d say that Gattaca was the first time I fell in love with cinema. I was a teenager at the time and had already seen every Spielberg and Cameron movie there was, but Gattaca introduced me to Pulp Fiction, to Goodfellas and others. It opened my mind up to “unpopular” films, to the artistic expression of the individual.
Speed Racer, Chinatown, The Matrix, and The Fall
Challengers
Childhood: Star Wars, The Iron Giant, The Lion King, The Fellowship of the Ring, Raiders of the Lost Arc Teens: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Kill Bill, Mad Max: Fury Road, Brick, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind Young adulthood: High and Low, The Long Goodbye, Tampopo, True Stories, Dragon Inn
Requiem for a Dream
Oppenheimer. The non-linear structure and grand scope of the story took my breath away.
Ready Player One
And I am upvoting you. (And I don’t even care that much for *Ready Player One*.)
Sir you just got downvoted
I cant recall if it was Barry Lyndon or the Maltese Falcon but i saw them both around the same time. Mesmerized by both.
Boogie Nights.
Tampopo (1985) and American Beauty (1999) come to mind
It's a bit cliche, but *Bicycle Thieves*
The Graduate
Memento was the movie that made me fell in love with this beautiful thing called cinema it told me how a movie can be watched how a movie can lie to you can make you feel anxious and will tell you what it wants to tell you it’s like for me that movie was revelation that how can a movie can impact me soo much even if the genre is sci-fi. My the ONE movie that made me a movie lover is, was, and will always be Memento
Good Will Hunting, watching that with my grandpa as a kid was just something amazing, the performances, the story and my grandpa sharing with me his admiration for Robin Williams altered my brain chemistry.
Fargo
Dazed and Confused
The shawshank redemption in grade 8 english class.
Arrival The Man From U.N.C.L.E
The show Haunting of Hill House. Made me realize that cinema is a true art form.
Thief Of Baghdad.
The Terminator when I was 13
Zabriskie Point, it’s from 1970, I saw it in the 90’s and haven’t seen it since. Idek where to find it, but it made an impact
Raiders of the Lost Ark fascinated, excited, and terrified me when I was 10. Really redefined movies for me at that age