A few only vaguely related cinematic matters

[slipjig3]

First is a question for you all: I've never much done the whole online wish list thing; the only one I've ever assembled was over at Funagain Games (here, if anyone cares), and that was only put together out of abject boredom one day. But it occurs to me that with my recent drive to expand the household DVD collection and family members who never know what to get me, it might be time to put together a movie wish list. Amazon would be the most obvious place to do so, but we tend to stay logged into rafaela's Amazon account, and swapping back and forth is kind of annoying, and Amazon gets on my nerves anyway. Does anyone happen to know any good websites that primarily sell DVDs (new, used or [preferably] both) with a wide range, reasonable pricing, and a wish list option?

One of the things that got me thinking about this was Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, which I got from Netflix and started watching to try and cure myself of The Apple. I've only gotten a short way into the film, but it has unexpectedly managed to worm its way under my skin. It's a movie for movie lovers, about a trio of young people, a pair of French siblings and an American student, for whom the cinema is a common language, and the entire enterprise is positively dripping with references and aside to the movies they love: Blonde Venus, Bande à part, Freaks, Hawks's Scarface.... I've never been much under Bertolucci's spell before, but The Dreamers is absolutely brilliant, and it has left me thinking about what my cultural language is, what memories I share with my friends and my generation. moreover, it has me wanting to watch every great movie ever made. (Y'wanna know how strongly this is affecting me? I think I'm finally ready to try Breathless again, and believe me, that's saying something.)

One of my favorite scenes has Matthew and Theo talking about the "Buster Keaton vs. Charlie Chaplin" debate, each perfectly secure in the knowledge that the choice is obvious—until they discover that their "obvious choices" are completely opposite of each other. Passionate debate ensues.

So. Debate passionately:

[Poll #1298749]

Comments

[ewin.livejournal.com]

This always happens to me during debates like this: I must opt out, owing to an almost total lack of exposure to one of the choices.

I won't tell you which one, because the response to that (no matter what the debate is) is always, "You've never seen BLAH? How can you not have seen/heard BLAH? But everyone has at least seen BLAH in BLAH, or at least BLAH if you live under a rock... here, let me draw you up a list of absolutely necessary entertainment choices for the next six weeks..."

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

It's tougher to point to any movies and say it's an "absolutely necessary entertainment choice" to see Buster Keaton because he was a character actor, who would often act without any lines (even after movies had sound).

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

badasstronaut's take on "The Dreamers" was "I liked the bit where he peed on a toothbrush."

[rain-herself.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no feelings about this. I don't care for either one of them, as far as I know. Which admittedly isn't much, because I'm not much into silence. :)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I like them both, but slightly prefer Buster Keaton's deadpan sense of humour. :)

Why do we need to choose at all?

[malefica-v.livejournal.com]

"The Dreamers" was a bizarre flick. It put me right off of French films.