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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2010 20:51:16 GMT
These movies are amazing -- they can be absolutely wonderful or the most awful thing ever made, you can love them without knowing why you love them or hate them and not understand how anybody can sit through the whole thing.
And yet certain movies become cult movies for completely unfathomable reasons. I thought we could talk about them here, and what we like or hate and maybe even why, if we can figure it out.
I will just start with a very simple movie that played first run in Paris for more than 10 years and yet was a total flop in most countries, if they even bothered to release it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 24, 2010 1:34:29 GMT
I'm one of the people who cannot understand the appeal of Harold and Maude.
How would you define "cult movie" -- one which a huge number of people deem worth multiple watchings?
Definitely Rocky Horror Picture Show is in that category. I enjoyed it, but once was enough.
I think What's Eating Gilbert Grape has attained some cult status. It is a movie I could see several times.
Are these movies officially cult movies? Eraser Head Gone With the Wind Blade Runner Mystery Train
What about Ghost Dog? If there is a cult for it, I want to belong.
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Post by imec on Nov 24, 2010 2:28:42 GMT
Oh! I didn't know H&M was a cult movie! I rarely watch movies but I have my own DVD of this - absolutely love it!!
Have seen Rocky Horror a couple or so times - at least once in the theatre where folks threw stuff, wore costume etc.
Saw Eraserhead - a bit unnerving. Watching the guy watch his socks dry on a radiator was very odd indeed.
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Post by hwinpp on Nov 24, 2010 5:31:20 GMT
I think Apocalypse Now can be considered a cult mopvie. And in Germany it's certainly the 'Feuerzangenbowle'.
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Post by myrt on Nov 24, 2010 8:28:57 GMT
In my head 'cult' movies are those which started maybe as some sort of unnoticed, underground films which have gradually gained huge status - although not necessarily massive popular viewing figures..as well as the ones mentioned I would add (off the top of my head): Metropolis Pan's Labyrinth Spirited Away Withnail and I This is Spinal Tap It's sooo annoying that I have no sound on my computer - I can't properly appreciate the clips.....
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Post by joanne28 on Nov 24, 2010 18:13:15 GMT
I've always liked most offbeat movies, whether they're considered cult or not.
I love Harold and Maude, Rocky Horror Picture Show (at home - in the theatre I found the audience participation annoying), and Withnail and I.
One I particularly like is Dog Days - Austrian, I think. Then there's Amélie.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2010 18:43:07 GMT
I am another admirer of Withnail and I as well as Harold and Maude.
A few other of my cult movies would be:
Donnie Darko Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders) Heart of Glass (Werner Herzog) The Year of Living Dangerously Barbarella
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Post by joanne28 on Nov 24, 2010 18:56:39 GMT
I just looked up Ghost Dog and it sounds quite interesting.
I've only seen the last half of The Triplets of Belleville - does that qualify as a cult film?
I must confess that Apocalypse Now angered me the first time I saw it - for all the chat about how anti-war it was, I saw a film that revered violence. Don't get me wrong - I have no problem with violent films per se, as long as I feel it's in context. I thought Apocalypse Now was a snow job.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2010 20:51:34 GMT
Only you can decide that a film is a cult film!
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Nov 25, 2010 0:26:12 GMT
I think for me a cult movie has to be innovative in some way. It should appeal to some people and turn off others because if too many people like it then it's just a movie that a lot of people like instead of something that a certain group is passionate about. I guess it has to be unusual/offbeat in subject matter or film style/editing or script writing or plot or some way that makes it grab your attention. It needs some element of non-conformity.
Since I enjoy "well made" B movies and other things that belong in the Bad Movies thread sometimes the line between these two genres can blur. But since it was just on TV I'm going to mention the film The Wicker Man. It was a bit of a musical, a comedy, a mystery and a horror movie with a shocker ending and two strong character performances, one by Christopher Lee (who said it was his best role ever) and one by the guy who played the policeman (can't remember his name). And since I saw it mentioned on TV the other day, the 1930's film "Freaks" is worthy of cult status, I think. Everyone knows Peter Jackson now for Lord of the Rings but has anyone seen his early stuff, I'm specifically thinking of "Dead Alive"?
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Nov 25, 2010 0:44:24 GMT
Hmmmm. I was just thinking and wondering if "Dead Alive" really belongs more to the genre of blood and guts. Maybe it's a cult movie within the genre of blood and guts films. Where does one draw the line?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2010 6:39:35 GMT
I would say that a cult movie is any movie that has a following for irrational reasons, and that has no bearing on the genre of the movie or whether it is good or bad. Horror movies can easily attain cult status because statements like "that movie scared the shit out of me" or "there was so much blood that I couldn't stop laughing" are psychiatric rather than rational reactions. This is what also gives cult status to certain actors and actresses. Queen of Outer Space is a cult movie in every category possible. Space Amazons, the tackiest sets imaginable.... and Zsa Zsa Gabor! Some delightful Wikipedia trivia: The Three Stooges and The Bowery Boys director Edward Bernds recalled that after famed producer Walter Wanger was released from prison for shooting agent Jennings Lang in the groin for having an affair with his wife Joan Bennett, Wanger could only find work at Allied Artists. In 1952 Wanger brought a ten page idea for a screenplay by Ben Hecht called Queen of the Universe that was a satirical look at a planet run by women. Several years later, with the idea of science fiction films being more common, Allied Artists revived the project with Wanger replaced on the film by Ben Schwalb who was then producing The Bowery Boys films. Screenwriter Charles Beaumont didn't think there was much in the Hecht screenplay, but Schwalb suggested spoofing the idea and had former The Three Stooges screenwriter Ellwood Ullman touch up Beaumont's screenplay. Allied Artists retitled the film Queen of Outer Space as they thought the original title sounded more like a beauty pageant.
The film recycled many ideas such as a planet ruled by women from other science fiction films of the era as Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Cat-Women of the Moon (both 1953) and the British Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1955). Queen of Outer Space also recycled many props and costumes, most prominently the C-57D crewmen's uniforms and Altaira's wardrobe from Forbidden Planet (1956), models, sets, and special effects from Bernds's World Without End (1956), the usual stock footage of a V-2 and a rocketship model used by The Bowery Boys in Paris Playboys (1954) that was co-written by Bernds and Ullman. The facial makeup of the deformed Queen strongly resembles the effect of being hit by a pie thrown by The Three Stooges.
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Post by spindrift on Nov 25, 2010 18:26:51 GMT
A friend of mine persuaded me to watch a cult movie called 'The Wickerman'. It gave me the creeps and has a horrid ending. He watches it regulary. I can't think why.
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Nov 25, 2010 18:40:04 GMT
spindrift - See my above post regarding The Wicker Man.
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Post by spindrift on Nov 25, 2010 21:36:49 GMT
FMT...oh yes, Inow see you had mentioned it. I couldn't understand how anyone would want to watch The Wicker Man so many times and foist it on other people. I thought the guy was quite weird.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2010 21:48:09 GMT
I am looking forward to seeing The Wicker Man some day. I knew it was a cult movie and then they actually made a remake of it, so there must be some reason. But I will just have to happen upon it by accident some day because the title has never appealed to me.
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Nov 26, 2010 2:13:39 GMT
Well, I don't watch films over and over, because that's too obsessive for my tastes, but I am drawn to unusual (even if disturbing) things and this movie was certainly unusual. No doubt it can give you the creeps and that the ending is horrifying but the actor captured that horror in an absolutely believeably real and terrifying sense.
K2 - for several years I had seen this movie on video store shelves (before pirate downloads) and the title never appealed to me and one day I just grabbed it on a whim. I've heard that the remake is awful.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 26, 2010 4:06:09 GMT
Well, Freaks is certainly a cult movie, and certainly falls into your designation of unusual/offbeat, FMT. (I actually finally saw if for the first time less than a year ago.) However, there are mainstream movies that attain cult status, too. The whole Lord of the Rings cycle is already getting there. And what about The Wizard of Oz, which has a strong following among many adults, including me?
I've had the Wicker Man recommended to me, too, but have resisted the idea of watching it.
Joanne, I would love to get your take on Ghost Dog, easily one of my favorite movies.
Is Ferris Bueller's Day Off a cult movie? There are tons of adults who love it & watch it repeatedly.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2010 5:49:36 GMT
Obviously it is. Another sign of cult movies is when people memorize large sections of dialogue.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 26, 2010 5:58:53 GMT
You know what? FMT is absolutely correct. I just re-read my own reply at #17, and every single one of those movies has a fantasy element to it.
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Nov 26, 2010 13:31:38 GMT
If memorizing large sections of dialogue makes something a cult movie then I'll have to add The Blues Brothers and Fast Times at Ridgemont High and possibly Caddyshack and Animal House. In my college years my circle of friends tended to watch these movies quite frequently. I guess Ferris Bueller could get thrown in there too.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2010 13:51:22 GMT
It's not exactly the same as memorizing Shakespeare!
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Post by joanne28 on Nov 26, 2010 16:31:31 GMT
Night on Earth is another I love but I don't know if it qualifies as a cult movie. It's offbeat.
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Nov 26, 2010 16:43:01 GMT
Quote from Hamlet, waxing philosophic - "To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them".
Quote from Jeff Spicoli (Fast Times), arriving late for history class - "This is US history, I see the globe right there ".
See if you can guess which quote I have memorized and which one I had to look up.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2010 16:48:44 GMT
FMT, I bet you looked up the one from Jeff Spicoli. Even I know the first one.
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Nov 26, 2010 22:45:32 GMT
Good one deyana!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2010 22:54:41 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2010 22:58:34 GMT
I know that would be modern drug gangsters consider Brian de Palma's Scarface to be the bible.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 8, 2010 20:16:58 GMT
I dunno if I've ever seen a 'cult' movie....I hate violence so I didn't enjoy The Godfather, Reservoir Dogs, or The Usual Suspects. I didn't like The Exorcist and walked out of A Clockwork Orange....was bored by Jules et Jim (am I a philistine!?)
I did however love Cinema Paradiso does that count? and for many years my favourite film was 'Who's Life is it Anyway' a masterpiece imo. I really love the old Ealing Comedies 'Whisky Galore', 'Passport to Pimlico' and The Titfield Thunderbolt ...and Blythe Spirit is an absolute joy...I watch that whenever it's on tv....
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2010 21:10:06 GMT
Anybody can decide that a movie is a cult movie if they have an irrational passion for it, even Bambi.
Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter was a major cult movie in the 1970's. It took many years for Charlotte Rampling's career to get over it.
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