Memories Tamil Movies
Janean Mcconnaughhay
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Why does one remember obscure films that one saw very long ago? For instance, a long long time ago, i saw a film called Ek Khiladi Baawan Patte. As a piece of information, this can be of no possible interest to anyone, nor is it particularly significant even for me. What strikes me is that i remember this. It was an utterly forgettable film, starring Dev Kumar, an actor unlikely to stir too many memories in anyone. But the memory of seeing it is vivid- it was in a place called Jetpur in Gujarat about forty years ago. The memories include not just the film, but also the theatre, the fact that one saw the film several times over, because the uncle i was visiting was the local police head which meant that one could pretty much stroll in and out of the theatre as one pleased. There are other memories attached to the film, but to inflict any more tedium on the reader would be cruel. The point is that an utterly forgettable film was surprisingly quite memorable as an overall experience.
Even as we cling on to memories, memories need something to cling to. Memories gather around some junctions in our lives- points in time that rise above the surface of our lives and give memories a handle to hang on to. At a time when our lives were without too much stimulation, movies played a key role in providing punctuation, adding some topography to the otherwise unremarkable landscape that was our life. By providing a common frame for memories to attach themselves to, films give our lives the sense of a journey, as we measure our own evolution through the films we watched.
Every film was like a trip to a strange and intensely bewitching time and place. Watching the film as a child was perhaps the most intense experience of all and we became children each time we saw a film. Although movies may not quite mean as much as they did it in an entertainment scarce time, they still manage to create ripples of memory around themselves. Everyone has a movie memory story to tell and bad films like Ek Khiladi Baawan Patte, perhaps make the best memories of all.
That's all right, Tony - I'm sure Adam & Ryan will return the favor in my direction (Adam recently referred to the Lord of the Rings trilogy as having the greatest impact on his childhood!
Adam, I saw An American Tail on video, and I'm pretty sure before Fievel Goes West, but not in theaters. Land Before Time was my first initiation into the Don Bluth universe (whatever happened to him, by the way?).
Ryan, there's definitely an overlap - particularly since, as I admitted in the intro, I kept getting dragged to family films past the appropriate age bracket. (You should've seen the ones I was too squeamish to include - do the initals "J", "T", and "T" mean anything to you? I'm pretty sure they did to my sister with unfortunate results for our familial moviegoing habits...)
At least one of the later ones I wanted to see - as Babe Pig in the City got Gene Siskel's enthusiastic - and as it turns out, last - "Best Film of the Year" pick for '98.)
Interesting, very interesting.
I don't think any film sparked my interest in films. As a youngster I liked Labyrinth (and Henson's 'The Storyteller' on TV) and Star Wars the most. I never got to see the original Star Wars at the Cinema, mind.
I don't really 'love' films as such (the films I write about on my blog are almost always the ones I like the most, so it may seem that the 'phile' in cinephile is bigger than it is). The majority of what I see I can't even get to the end of.
Babe Pig in the City is cool, creepy and fun. I like the city - a collage of all the great cities.
Wow, that was a fun walk down memory lane (though I'm obviously a bit older than you -- I missed a lot of those kids movies because I was "too old" but remember my younger brothers liking them). It's amazing how we can connect so many experiences to a simple poster (or a video box, which also evokes a lot of memories). Sadly, it just doesn't work when you get older, does it.
One question -- where was INDEPENDENCE DAY in all those posters. There's no way you didn't see that...
Like Adam, I too can remember reading Ebert's review of NORTH and deciding not to go see it.
Fun fact -- ALIEN was also MY first R-rated movie, watched at a friends house when I was much too young and led to several nights of me waiting for an alien to burst into my room and eat me.
Stephen,
Do you mean any "one" film as in it was a gradual thing?
Also when you say you don't "love" films as such, do you mean you like good movies but don't have much of an affinity for movies in general - or that, while you write about movies, you don't really love them more than, say books or TV shows or sports games? (I'd be kind of surprised if it's the latter, as you certainly seem to be "one of us"!)
If the former, as I suspect, than I sympathize. While I no longer seem to love all "movies" as much as the good ones, there was a time when I did - when it was "the movies" in general than got me excited. In a sense it still is, but year by year "the movies" becomes more of a distraction. Still, everything I am now was born out of a combination of what you see above, of what you see on my books list last summer, and of my video collection, which will perhaps have to wait for one more post to round out this informal trilogy!
Have you read David Bordwell's essay on cinephilia/cinemania. It's one of my favorite pieces of his, and ipso facto one of my favorites in the blogosphere:
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Troy, yes the iconography of the movies - or the marketing to those less inclined to romanticize - certainly plays a vital role in the whole mythology. I remember wanting to expand this sense to other movies, and being disappointed that they didn't have Forrest Gump action figures, for example! (I was convinced that a Lt. Dan figurine with detachable legs would sell.)
That's one thing that strikes me about the early years, as I sort of hint above in the response to Stephen I was inclined to invite all types of movies into the same big tent. The fact that, right of the bat, I was going from Land Before Time to Twins and enjoying both was a good sign.
I'm hoping that when if I can develop a new blog to write about new releases, I can rekindle some of that old enthusiasm/interest in contemporary cinema, even with a more jaundiced eye. Without it, cinephilia seems to get a little stale for me - while I've enjoyed exploring the annals of cinema history for the past few years I'm not keen on 2010 being another year like 2008 or 2009, in which I saw only a handful of movies (I think I saw about 3 or 4 mainstream releases from '09!).
I saw Alien, like Ransom, with my dad the first time. He had seen it in '79 and, like you, lived with a terror of something bursting out of his chest for many days. I think he even had a nightmare after which he burst out of bed, half-asleep, and began vaccuuming around the floor for the missing face-hugger! Sadly, he was 31 at this point. (My mother returned from wherever she was to find him in this state; I think he'd put the dog up on the bed to keep it safe...)
Oh, and Troy, Independence Day is definitely in there - look between Hunchback of Notre Dame and Phenomenon! I'll admit to concealing a few big blockbusters though, including one I saw several times - four I think. Dishonest of me, I know...
MovieMan,
"Do you mean any "one" film as in it was a gradual thing?"
Yes. I don't recall any 'revelation'.
"Also when you say you don't "love" films as such, do you mean you like good movies but don't have much of an affinity for movies in general..."
I think the best examples of film click with me a little better than the best examples of other arts and for that reason I seek out greats and watch with something that may seem like obsessive zeal in order to find them.
"...when it was "the movies" in general than got me excited."
Yes, to me that's linked to the possibility of seeing greatness. The more I see, the smaller the proportion is that seems to be great.
I have the urge to write (in non-fiction that is) about films that I don't quite have to write about opera or novels or ballet. It's something I find easier to get into.
I don't think I have a special affinity with films in general. It seems to me that the people in these blog circles are a little different to me in that respect - I don't go mad about posters or actors or memorabilia etc. etc.
I would say I have a greater love for,and indeed knowledge of, Football ('Soccer'(!)). If I had one chance to watch a massive football match or Lynch's latest film it would be the match every time.
Thanks for the link to Bordwell's piece. I haven't read it.
Stephen,
Interesting on all counts! Hope you enjoy the Bordwell piece (even if you don't count yourself as "cinephile" or "cinemaniac").
As for the small proportion of greatness, that's why I like to follow canons in what I seek out - though hardly foolproof they generally give a higher percentage of satisfaction than random pickings. That side I also kind of miss the random, but enjoyable trash that one sees by going to everything. Ah well, a bit of both in the best of all universes.
Funny to hear about the football. Football is the one sport I watch (though I'm enjoying these winter Olympics when I'm drifting off to sleep - not meant as an insult btw).
Well, AMERICAN football that is...
(I was in Europe during World Cup '06, however, and quite enjoyed getting into all the hysteria. Kind of made me "see" the excitement of the sport for the first time...somehow it ended up that whatever country I was in on my mini-tour was playing in the Cup at that moment...)