![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
What Makes a Classic Film?
May. 4th, 2014 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glindaSo, I'm currently working on a couple of film watching projects on where I'm trying to watch one film from every year since film-making began and the other where I watch 10 'Classic Movies'.
I spent some time as a film student when I was younger, but my films of choice (and mild obsession) as a teen were 50s and 60s B Movies and thus I never saw many of the accepted canon films and thus I often encountered the horrified 'what do you mean you haven't seen X?! And you call yourself a film student!' attitude. And half the time when I try to 'correct' this and actually watch some of the supposed 'canon' the films leave me cold. So while I'm a bit embarassed that I've never seen Forbidden Planet, I'm not remotely convinced that my life is likely to be improved by watching the Godfather trilogy.
Also the major problem I've found with lots of the lists of 'classic' films that I've found are Hollywood centric (and Hollywood from the 40s to the 70s at that), maybe with a couple of arty European affairs thrown in for good measure, but frankly when it comes to films from outside of Hollywood if Satyajit Ray or Yasujiro Ozu get a passing nod then they're doing well.
Which leads me to here. Members of this comm seem to have a rather more sensible attitude to 'classic film', so it seems the best place to ask: what makes a film a classic? And which of the so-called classics are actually worth watching?
I spent some time as a film student when I was younger, but my films of choice (and mild obsession) as a teen were 50s and 60s B Movies and thus I never saw many of the accepted canon films and thus I often encountered the horrified 'what do you mean you haven't seen X?! And you call yourself a film student!' attitude. And half the time when I try to 'correct' this and actually watch some of the supposed 'canon' the films leave me cold. So while I'm a bit embarassed that I've never seen Forbidden Planet, I'm not remotely convinced that my life is likely to be improved by watching the Godfather trilogy.
Also the major problem I've found with lots of the lists of 'classic' films that I've found are Hollywood centric (and Hollywood from the 40s to the 70s at that), maybe with a couple of arty European affairs thrown in for good measure, but frankly when it comes to films from outside of Hollywood if Satyajit Ray or Yasujiro Ozu get a passing nod then they're doing well.
Which leads me to here. Members of this comm seem to have a rather more sensible attitude to 'classic film', so it seems the best place to ask: what makes a film a classic? And which of the so-called classics are actually worth watching?