Since I'm not really doing anything constructive with my life right now, I decided to get a Netflix subscription and school myself in the ways of classic art-house cinema, hoping to find some kind of insight or inspiration, expand my cultural knowledge, and also so I can maybe impress weird pretentious artsy girls (my favorite kind). And I figure if I'm going to try and master an artform, it might as well be film since it's still very young, just over a hundred years old. I am approaching this endeavor from an intentionally naive perspective, influenced by Susan Sontag's essay "Against Interpretation" — a sensory approach, focusing more on my visceral reactions to these films than any kind of critical analysis, and trying to ignore my background in literature, so as to cut through all the bullshit and get right to the heart of the work. So far, though I've seen a lot of boring shitty films, on the whole I have found this amateur cinephilia to be very fulfilling emotionally. One can learn quite a lot about life from these images. Here are my initial impressions regarding some of the best I've seen over the past few months.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972) — Bleak, psychotic, haunting, magical. Based on Pizarro's ill-fated expedition to find El Dorado, the mythical city of gold. Enough white male guilt/self-loathing to destroy the Amazon itself, but the real focus here is the hallucinatory state induced by this particular kind of obsessive ambition. Legend has it that Herzog forced the lead actor, Klaus Kinski, to finish this film at gunpoint, threatening a murder-suicide. Supposedly this was a big influence on Apocalypse Now, for the riverboat sequences and Brando's portrayal of Kurtz. The soundtrack is beautiful, made by German psych band Popol Vuh.

3 Women (Altman, 1977) — Incredibly strange…evades capsule summarization. Personality horror. One of the most disturbing movies I've seen, despite having no blatantly shocking scenes. Recommended for fans of Mulholland Drive and Ingmar Bergman's Persona.

The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959) — The best filmsnob flick I've seen so far, yet I can't think of anything to say about it. Essentially plotless… runaway French kid wanders the streets of Paris and gets into trouble. Moving beyond words, so I'll refrain from trying to describe it and just say that it's fucking great.

Holy Mountain (Jodorowsky, 1973) — An assaultive series of bizarre, fucked up images. I didn't understand any of it, but enjoyed the sheer spectacle of it all. Put this one at the top of the Collegiate Stoner watchlist. Utterly fucked, indescribable.

Pierrot the Mad (Godard, 1965) — My favorite Godard so far. Obviously I'm no French New Wave critic here, but I see it as a sort of transitional piece between the lively and jagged Breathless and the somewhat boring, heavy-handed, experimental Weekend. Basically, a struggling writer runs away with a hot femme fatale and a lot of crazy shit happens. Battle of the sexes, existentialist themes, passion, betrayal, violence — kind of like a French Bonnie & Clyde. Some of the best dialogue I've ever seen in a film, too bad I don't know any French so I could actually hear the dialogue instead of just reading it.

Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris, 1982) — I accidentally added this to my queue instead of Gates of Heaven (which is great) and thought it was going to be boring as hell, but it turned out to be pretty amazing. By far the funniest documentary I have ever seen, although it's not a documentary in the conventional sense — there's no voiceover, no onscreen text to give info or give names, no investigative aspect. It's just a bunch of old, weird Southern people talking to a camera and it's fucking hilarious. Not in a derisive sense, like "Oh haha these yokels are so dumb", but just how it evokes the absurdity of life and the insanity that dwells beneath the surface of seemingly normal, everyday people. The Thin Blue Line is another fantastic doc by Errol Morris, and carries the rare distinction of being the only movie to actually overturn a murder conviction.

Down By Law (Jarmusch, 1986) — A pimp, a DJ and an Italian guy are arrested, imprisoned, and then escape from prison. That's not a spoiler because they give all that away in the trailer, and anyways the plot isn't the focal point here, it's more about the interplay of emotions between the three men. Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni are both great in this. Beautifully filmed in black and white — every scene is like a classic photograph. The ending scene nearly made me weep with vicarious joy.

Solaris (Tarkovsky, 1972) — Just see it. Forget about the bullshit George Clooney-starring remake and just see this shit. It's slow but stick with it, you will be rewarded both intellectually and emotionally. I don't even know why this was remade, it's perfect as is.

Nights of Cabiria (Fellini, 1957) — I don't feel qualified to comment on Fellini and I'm getting sick of typing this post, but this is a beautiful movie. Roman hooker, search for love, incredible ending.

Well, that's it for now. If there's any interest in this thread, I will continue to update as I see more films and continue to digest the ones I've already seen. The next installment will feature classic/film snob/art house films that I found boring, pretentious, overrated, or just plain shitty. If there's a genuine hardcore film snob on AT, he can take over because I've barely scratched the surface.

Feel free to comment on my selections, recommend movies, call me a long-winded fuckbag, or share some of your own capsule reviews. I hope at least one of you decides to see one of these movies — there's a whole universe out there waiting to be discovered by a new generation of film geeks, and for my money, it sure beats the shit out of reading books.

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I've only seen Holy Mountain, but I recommend it to anyone.

Still makes me a little uneasy though.

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yeah holy mountin is fuckin weird

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