Senses of Cinema - Journal - Blog #2

I’m always interested in what other film lovers have to offer. Sensesofcinema.com is the prefect place to find just about anything you’d like having to do with film. I spent a while looking at the top ten lists, from people around the world, and I compared them what my top ten list would be. Some listed all films I had never heard of before, and some were pretty generic. I was looking for people who had a few movies on their list that I enjoy as well, and pick out the films I haven’t seen and write them down. I now have a pretty substantial list of films that I am excited to see.
By providing top ten lists of everyday filmmakers and film lover’s sensesofcinema.com is offering up a few things. First they are showing who their audience is and what their audience likes. With that, a new viewer who comes to the site can look at that page and know generally what type of cinema this online journal has up for discussion. I’ve discovered that this journal focuses mainly on feature films ranging in date from 1930 to the present. They focus mostly on cult classics, old time favorites, foreign films and highly acclaimed independent cinema. They are also offering a perspective on cinema that isn’t that of an expert. The moviegoer can tell the other moviegoer just what to see, which makes the information feel more accessible,
I chose to read an article on Hal Ashby. I had never heard of him, but had heard of his films like “Harold and Maude” and “Being There”. I was blown away first by the story of how he came to be a director. After moving to California haphazardly, he went to an unemployment office and asked for a job at a movie studio. The rest is history. He said in an interview that he learned how to make films while in the editing room. He stated, “It's the perfect place to examine everything…everything is channeled down into that strip of film, from the writing to how it's staged, to the director and the actors. And you have the chance to run it back and forth a lot of times, and ask questions of it – Why do I like this? Why don't I like this?” Being an aspiring director, I found these words to be or great help. Ashby never wrote films, he made their story come to life. I always struggle with not being the best writer of scripts or stories, but this quote is comforting. It made me feel that if I know what I’m doing with a camera lens and can take a story and breath life into it, I am just as important in the development of the story as the writer. Ashby’s career is impressive and I am looking forward to seeing some of his films. I am also looking forward to reading about more directors.
Lastly I’d like to talk about an article entitled “Scenes from a Revolution: The Birth of the New Hollywood.” It looks at the rebuilding of Hollywood in the 1960’s. The Graduate is the film that the author, Mark Harris, credits as creating a new Hollywood. Being one of my favorite films, I am not surprised to hear this. Harris speaks about the last few films to come out of old Hollywood, and how they made an impact. The Sound of Music single-handedly saved Twentieth Century Fox from bankruptcy. Doctor Doolittle was an abysmal failure that forced studios to think about the type of films they were making. Bonnie and Clyde was also a failure at the time. The film credited as being the last film made in the old Hollywood generation was Look Who’s Coming to Dinner. It’s social message, though heavy to the old generation, seemed tired and conservative to a new generation of moviegoers. The Graduate offered taboo subject matter with hilarity and style and ushered in a new era of Hollywood cinema
Sensesofcinema.com has an unlimited supply of information on feature films and artists. It’s going to take me a long time to scour this whole site for all the information that I want.