Read it? Awesome. I finished as I was starting my college years and beginning to dive into the uncharted waters of 18-certificates, not to mention the lure of foreign-language films or the previously uninteresting black-and-white movies! So what other films featured prominently as I started to delve into new territories?
HIGH FIDELITY
I stumbled upon this film at a perfect time in my life. As I started falling in love with cinema, I became a little obsessed with trying to watch as many as I could, as fast as I could. The word 'nerd' could have been used and I would have had no argument against it. I was also transitioning from high school to college, the biggest event in my life so far. Some friends were lost, some were met and some remained with me. Within this newly-formed group of friends, a few were obsessed with film as much as I was, leading to several discussions about what our favourite films/actors/directors were. Not only that but the choices truly mattered; one 'wrong' opinion and your stock fell faster than Felix Baumgartner (remember him?).
This is when I discovered High Fidelity. For those who haven't watched the film, the basic premise is that after a big break-up, a list-obsessed record-store owner lists his top five most paintful break-ups and precedes to interview his ex-girlfriends to find out what caused each break up.
Now my experience with 'relationships' in high school constituted mainly as this: say "Hey!" to each other in the morning, possibly hold hands at lunchtime and speak to each other on MSN Messenger in the evening. Hardly Fifty Shades of Grey. However, the way that lovable loser Rob (John Cusack) spoke frankly to the viewer about his emotions, acts like a man-child but grows into a semi-mature, respectable man was endearing. I also saw myself in the younger version of Rob; immature regarding relationships and more interested in his media fixation. But it was comforting to think that there was more over the horizon.
On a different note, the film also introduced me, adn the rest of the world, to the energy-tornado that is Jack Black. The role of the music-snob Barry was perfect for Black and he thoroughly stole the show. From High Fidelity, I followed Black's career through his comedy-rock band Tenacious D, as well as his friendship with other up-and-coming comedy actors such as Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller, known as "The Frat Pack". Their films and subversive form of comedy would also help shape my sense of humour. Take that as a positive or negative, I'm not sure.
AMERICAN BEAUTY
No other movie has comforted me as much as American Beauty. I don't mean 'comforted' in the sense that it would wrap me in a blanket after a bad day, but it has had such a calming effect on my personality, I'd safely say it has changed my outlook on life as a whole. Big words, eh? But I can say that with absolute certainty.
*WARNING* OK, so, I'm gonna try and explain why this film changed my outlook on life, but I worry sometimes that it comes across as very schmultzy or pretentious. I apologise if it does, but I'm just finally using this article as a way of venting a long held belief. *END OF WARNING*
During my teenage years before I watched American Beauty, I often lost my temper and was the butt of many of my friends' jokes because of it. I regularly took myself too seriously and got upset over jokes made at my expense, rather than joining in and laughing at myself. However, when I watched the final minutes of American Beauty, Kevin Spacey's character Lester narrates as he looks back over his life. He comments on how much of his life was spent in pointless anger or frustration, when there was so much of his life he didn't pay attention to; his childhood memories, his daughter growing up and how he first fell in love with his wife.
Whilst I had no daughter or wife to focus on, and I had just left my childhood, the main idea behind Lester's words touched upon my current outlook on life, so I decided to change. I was wasting so much of my life being angry or upset over such trivial things, I guess you could say I flipped the switch from 'pessimist' to 'optimist' as a result of this film. American Beauty awakened me to the hidden beauty in the world and how we as a people are often too focussed on the negatives in life.
I realise that I am probably coming across like a free-love hippie or something, but I definitely think that my life would be a completely different entity without this film making me a better person. Despite recommending this film to as many people as possible, the effect has rarely been repeated, with some people actively hating the movie instead. Of course being an art form, films rarely have the same impact on other people, so I can understand if my reaction is a bit extreme, but I do owe Sam Mendes' debut a hell of a lot.
The American comedian Bill Hicks often finished his comedy routines, most famously 1993's Revelations with this speech and this, along with American Beauty's central theme of highlighting the beauty found in the world, sincerely helped frame my outlook on the world. Give it a read:
"Life's like a ride at an amusement park. When you go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down and round and round; it has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured. It's very loud and it's fun, for a while.
Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, and they say, "Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid ever... because this is just a ride." And we kill those people...""Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride - shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry! Look at my big bank account, and my family! This has to be real!"... But it's just a ride. And we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? Jesus - murdered; Martin Luther King - murdered; Malcolm X - murdered; Gandhi - murdered; John Lennon - murdered...
But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. A choice, right now, between fear and love."
OLDBOYI, like a lot of westerners, was initially put off foreign films due to the subtitles and the obvious differences from the classic Hollywood blockbusters. ("They expect me to think?!") However, over time, I have grown to adore foreign cinema for just these reasons.
Whilst there might be increasing budgets and blockbuster movies coming from overseas, you will not find a better power struggle fought within a single family, fraught with tension, shocks and intrigue, than the Danish film Festen. If you need a delightful romance to cheer you up, set against a beautiful Parisian backdrop with the amazingly cute leading lady, then I'd gladly watch Amelie. However, one film truly opened my mind to what else was out there in the big, scary world.
Oldboy could have been a typical Asian revenge thriller, but so many features make it stand out from the rest. Mainly, the visual style of the film is incredibly striking, with the director Park Chan-Wook definitely wanting to make an impression. He does not pull punches, especially in the incredibly realistic and violent fight sequences, such as the iconic hallway/claw-hammer fight. It shattered my expectations by juxtaposing such a twisted storyline by treating it as a love story to filmmaking as a whole.
The main appeal is found in the often-muted Oh Dae-su, played by Choi Min-sik. Oh Dae-su turns from a pitiful loser into an dynamic and vengeful warrior and we are with him every step of his journey. Along with such a powerful hero, Oldboy features such an incredible villain in Woo-jin Lee, played by Ji-tae Yu. Lee is charismatic, vile and just fantastic. He conveys such enjoyment as his master plan unfolds around Oh Dae-su, it's hard not to actually feel sorry for him at the film's culmination, despite how awful and tragic he is. The film is so amazing on so many levels, it improves every time I watch it.
The entire plot is constructed in such a way that the film truly intrigues, baffles and ultimately shocks you in a way that I had never experienced before or since. It definitely left a permenant imprint on my mind, making it a personal favourite and produced an angry response regarding Spike Lee's remake that was released in cinemas last year.
Consequently I wondered what else was hidden in the extensive library of foreign films and I tried more films from Asia, such as the South Korean monster movie The Host, the Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs and the Chinese martial arts epic Hero, all three becoming personal favourites of mine.
Also, this discovery allowed me to stumble upon one specific film that again changed the beliefs I held...
SPIRITED AWAY
This film was just magical. It blew me away, but in a completely different way. I had grown up with the majority of animation coming from either Disney, Pixar or Warner Brothers. The lesser known anime style from Japan was only really known to my generation through television shows such as the fantastic Pokemon and the inferior Digimon.
Little did I know, that in 1997 whilst Hercules was going from zero to hero and underperforming in ticket sales, the Studi Ghibli film Princess Mononoke was breaking Japanese box-office records.
When Oliver & Company was hardly making an impact on the animation world in 1988, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata directed My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies respectively, now regarded as two of the most influential and emotionally-mature animated films ever made.
With it's own take on the story of Alice In Wonderland, Spirited Away was my first real taste of Japanese anime culture and I instantly fell in love. The hand-drawn aesthetic, the care and attention obviously given to the film's design and characters, but mostly the overall surreal, yet familiar atmosphere really drew me in to the fantasy world laid before me. The fantastical was combined with the ordinary to such an amazing effect and I was bowled over by the fim's imagination.
I might have seen quite a fair portion of films from the Disney vault but this was such a fresh alternative. The film didn't seem afraid to take risks and some parts were genuinely scary. From the protagonist Chihiro's parents being turned into enormous pigs in the opening act, to the once friendly No-Face becoming a monster and chasing Chihiro through the bathhouse, the film contains so much surreal aspects you honestly don't know what will come next and the overall feel of magic is present throughout.
Spirited Away led me to other classics such as Howl's Moving Castle, Porco Rosso, Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo as well as the previously mentioned Princess Mononoke, Totoro and Fireflies. And that's just a few of the dozens of films released by Studio Ghibli over the past two decades. Please try and watch one of these films; they're often shown on FilmFour and I highly doubt you will regret your decision. I definitely didn't.
So that remained that for a long time. I went to the cinemas and was adequately entertained, but nothing really stood out to me anymore. Whilst Christopher Nolan attempts to insert as many of his films into my Top Ten list as possible, Darren Aronofsky breaks more ground in uncharted-genre territory and David Fincher proves himself as one of the greatest directors of our generation, I've come to expect that from them and I could place any of their films on this list. However, one film stood out amongst the rest from an unexpected source...
THE LIFE OF PI
As I watch more and more films being produced from the factory of Hollywood, I often worry that nothing will blow me away anymore. However, when the trailer for The Life Of Pi was released, I didn't have a big opinion about it. It looked standard really, nothing worth writing home about it. I knew the basic premise. A boy becomes stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. High concept nonsense. But as the lights turned up and the credits rolled, I had no words to describe what I had just watched.
Whilst the technology of Gollum blew me away in The Two Towers, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World made me feel as excited as a child again and Inception took everything to another level... and then another level... and then another level. However the inherent themes of The Life Of Pi truly spoke to me in a new and exciting way.
The special effects were incredible; the tiger (named Richard Parker, because of reasons) looked so lifelike, I was bowled over to learn a genuine tiger was only filmed twice during the film. Otherwise, yeah, that's just pixels. Mind: blown. Also for what seemed to be an unfilmable premise, Ang Lee actually does a decent job of exploring a lot of the religious themes in the first act of the film, containing the shipwreck and subsequent marooning to the second and third acts of the film.
Within the three acts, the eponymous Pi encounters several religions, has his faith tested with an other-worldly ordeal and experiences a revelation that spoke to me in a way that no film had done since American Beauty all those years ago. Usually if a film touches upon religious subject matter, it comes across as preachy or self-righteous; God is either all that there is, or a complete and utter lie and believers are all fools. I hate both of these outcomes because I believe life is not so black and white. However, the ambiguous religious subtext of the film was completely earnest and totally threw me. I was not expecting a film to contain such a perfect allegory about my idea of faith.
This is what I love about my relationship with film. It has the ability to speak to me, and so many others, on an emotional, intellectual and even spiritual level. The idea that films are sometimes dismissed as a inferior artform to music or theatre always annoys me as, whilst there are uneccesary pieces of tosh like Movie 43, Little Man or Norbit, some of the most breathtaking times in my life have come sitting in a dark room that smells of popcorn. These are just ten examples. There are hundreds of other films that have framed my life and caused me to be the man I am today, but I don't think I have enough space on this site to write about them all.
Instead I shall thank you for reading the reasons I chose these ten influential films. If you haven't seen any of them, obviously I highly recommend that you give them a try. Who knows, they may touch your life as they have touched mine. Or make you incredibly scared of dinosaurs. Let's hope the former.
Until next time folks, thanks for reading!
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