In the past couple of weeks, I’ve
had some discussions with friends and students about favorite films (which is
essentially what anyone is talking about when they discuss movies, I
know). Not the best films, but favorites. Talking about Citizen Kane, I noted that no one ever seems to cite it as their
favorite movie, though it often makes “top tens’ or “top twenties” of serious
film lovers, as it should. I have
however heard of someone who claimed Orson Welles follow up, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) in
their personal top spot. To me this
claim smacked of pretention. Ambersons is an interesting film, but to
say that it’s your favorite is an obvious attempt at more-knowledgeable-than-thou
priggishness. Anyway, these
conversations got me thinking about what some of the most pretentious favorite
film choices might be.
After
Ambersons, the first film that came
to mind was Bergman’s The Seventh Seal
(1957), certainly a great film, but not exactly one that has posters flying off
the shelves (although, now that I think of it, I would buy one). I can think of at least five Bergman pictures
that are more enjoyable, and at least comparable in terms of artistic and
technical achievement. So, in my mind,
the film snob who notes The Seventh Seal as
his favorite movie is deliberately choosing a picture that the average
moviegoer isn’t going to sit through because it is what critics of its time
might have called “opaque.” They want to
make sure that everyone who likes Lord of
the Rings knows just how smart they are.
Is there anything wrong with this? Or untrue? Well I suppose that I’d choose the Seventh Seal guy over the LotR fella if I needed a partner for a
film trivia competition, and I think that the snob is entitled to his snobbery
if he’s earned it by sitting through Shoah
(1985) and Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). He just doesn’t need to falsely claim supreme
affection for a movie that serves to deliberately set him apart from Twilight fans. That difference should be apparent after even
the briefest of conversations about movies anyway, particularly if it isn’t interrupted
by Twitter updates.
So
below I’m looking for other titles that it would be pretentious to claim as a
personal favorite. List and rant if you
will. Change names if you wish to
protect your snobbish friends (they’ll know anyway). I look forward to your thoughts. # teamBjörnstrand
"Les Enfants du Paradis"! The beautiful Garance loved by Baptiste, Frederick, Pierre and Edouard in the Funambules theatre on the Boulevard du Crime.
ReplyDeleteIt has been my favorite film since high school. I pretentiously sighed through every scene at least 20 times as a teenager. I can honestly say that I have spent more time watching "Children of Paradise" than sitting in church.
Beth,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! I think it's a good note for the post, and your willingness to out yourself is admirable. I'm not sure it's more pretentious than some others, but I know many who would say it's up there ... but it is an emotional masterpiece, and the Criterion DVD looks great. I haven't seen the Blu-ray restoration yet.