Thursday, April 23, 2009

Don't

Two days ago I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. All day I wanted to punch someone on the face. Anyone. I didn't.

This morning I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Again. All day I wanted to pick a fight with someone. Anyone. I didn't.

But I chanced upon a comment a former officemate wrote on a Facebook movie quiz she took. She perfected the quiz about mainstream movies and wondered in writing that she really is a movie addict.

That kind of pissed me off. If you say that you are a movie addict then you should not limit yourself to mainstream movies like Notting Hill, My Best Friend's Wedding, 50 First Dates, The Wedding Singer, 27 Dresses, and the like. I mean these movies are entertaining but does that make one an addict when one consign to watch outputs from mainstream Hollywood, Star Cinema, and GMA Films? When one abhors reading subtitles? When one abhors sad endings and wants every movie to end happily ever after?

Methinks a person should label himself one when he does not only watch Spielberg, Howard, Lucas, Bay but also of Godard, Truffaut, Kubrick, Coppola, Scorsese, Almodovar, Lynch, Kurosawa.

Locally one should not only watch Garcia-Molina, Lamangan, Deramas, Roño, (Joyce) Bernal, (Joey) Reyes, Tony (Reyes), Quintos but also of (Lav) Diaz, (Raya) Martin, Jeturian, Mendoza, (Ditsi) Carolino. One should be interested in movies made by Brocka, Bernal, (Mike) de Leon, (Eddie) Romero, (Gerry) de Leon, (Gregorio) Fernandez, (Lamberto) Avellana.

One should have seen the sad story of a father and son looking for a lost bicycle in The Bicycle Thief, or that 20-minute scene in an apartment in Breathless, or that long-take towards the end at the beach in The 400 Blows, or the lengthy silent scenes at the start and end of 2001: A Space Odyssey and was given homage by Pixar in last year's terrific WallE, or the middle-aged filmmaker watching snippets of famous movie scenes in Cinema Paradiso, or the claustrophobia and shocking ending in Kisapmata, or the murder scenes shot with Beethoven's Für Elise playing in the background in Elephant, or getting baffled over the ending of Mulholland Drive and frenziedly searching the net for an explanation, or getting awed by creatures created by Guillermo del Toro in Pan's Labyrinth, or watching an entire movie like L'enfant that has no musical score from start to finish. And many more.

Don't label yourself something when you're not. Even when it's only on social networking sites.
*****

I wrote this post earlier in the office. When I read it again in my room many hours later it reeked of conceit. Elitist. Forgive me. That was just me ranting.

5 comments:

gillboard said...

ok fine.. im not a movie addict... hehehe

The Scud said...

hehe. tarantado talaga akong tao. :p

atticus said...

bakit ka kasi natutulog sa kama na may wrong side? bumili ka ng bagong kama. iyong puro right side paggising mo.

o dapat na ba akong tumakbo dahil ako na ang sasapakin mo?

hindi ako movie addict, pramis.
*takbo na, atticus!*

Visual Velocity said...

Ano ba 'to? Katakot.

Hala, si Scud high-blood nanaman. Aray ko. :p

The Scud said...

atticus > kulang lang sa tulog. hehe.

andy > magkikita pa kami mamaya ni ex-officemate. nyahaha.