Building a DVD collection

[Alobar]

As someone who takes great pride in his large DVD collection, I am completely on the same page as you. Well except for the left to right viewing, thats a little to extreme IMO [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I actually judge how good someones DVD collection is by how many crappy movies they have in it, not how many good ones. My friend has over 300 DVDs and at least half of them are completely stupid. No way would I ever taint my collection by letting a crappy movie in.

A great way to get rid of the movies you buy and don't meet the standard is to sell them on ebay. I've sold about 10 DVDs this way, and over half of them sold for more than what you could buy it new for (god, I love stupid bidders).

I'm very curious about your rating system. What criteria do you use to give something a rating down to a 2 decimal places?

[Non_Comformist]

The first digit (ie 2,3,4) speaks more the movies quality. The decimals have more to do with relative rating compared to other movies. So for example I consider Training Day and Swingers to be both great movies but Training Day to be slightly better.

You are 100% correct about the quantity of bad movies in a collection saying more than the amount of good ones.

[Blarg]

Your rule number two makes watching movies sound more like an obligation than enjoyment.

I take great pride in my DVD collection too. I've always really loved movies, and the ones I like a lot I can watch an almost endless number of times. There are ones I like less, but I sometimes find friends who like them, or am in the mood to see them just for variety, so feel no need to dump them.

You do seem obsessive-compulsive, and like you like a structure and order about things. I suggest you stop adding to your collection in a way that goes against that. Pick a direction to pursue.

That direction could be thematic, or follow one of my favorite ways to both read and watch movies -- by author.

Like, if you like Hitchcock, get all of his most famous ones or at least rent them, and read up a lot on him so you enjoy the movies more, and see if there are any of his less popular ones you might also like. Hitch has plenty of good movies.

I like Michael Mann a lot, myself. Try "Thief" with James Caan, and "Heat" with DeNiro and Pacino. Both incredible movies. Mann is the guy who did the pilot and some early episodes for Miami Vice. The pilot was a stunner and I didn't particularly even like that show, but if you watch "Thief," which came before it, you can see stylistic and thematic echoes. That's one of the great things about pursuing works by author -- the resonances build, and you start to spot and enjoy the variations and developments and growth in the director, and sometimes the stars, if they work together a lot(like, say, Scorcese and DeNiro do, or John Ford and John Wayne). It's very fun and satisfying to see more deeply into a work of art because you have some context surrounding it.

You can also assemble a collection by subject -- say, War Movies, or by theme -- say, Film Noir.

After a while, you can build your own little history of film that way, and you'll have gained a certain cohesive knowledge you can be proud of. It's an organized, goal-driven way of enjoying movies, but still very enjoyable, because you're the one choosing the goals and choosing how long you have those goals.

Supplementing these movies with written materials can be very satisfying, too.

For instance, say you want to learn more about Film Noir. You can start with a little bit of reading about German Expressionism and expatriate Germans in Hollywood in the 30's and 40's fleeing from Nazi persecution, and what films they made in Germany and then in America, and how they influenced so many American filmmakers.

An example syllabus:

1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

2. Metropolis, and then other seminal Fritz Lang movies, like "M," and his American movies like "The Blue Gardenia," "Ministry of Fear," and "The Big Heat," and "Human Desire," which is a remake of a Renoir movie, "La Bete Humaine"

3. Books of Dashiell Hammett, and movies made out of them, the first of the really huge and really highly regarded pulp detective fiction writers. Try The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon, for starters.

4. Check out "The Best Years of Our Lives," by William Wyler. Made in 1947, right after World War II, it epitomizes the kind of bizarre mixing of optimism and a dark mood about what life was really all about that the soldiers coming home had as they tried to fit into the staid surface mores of society. Wyler said that the movie couldn't have been made even a year later, because of the increasing pressures that led to the nationwide blacklists and commie scares that ruined so many lives.

5. Books of Raymond Chandler, and the movies made out of them, the other major name in pulp detective fiction after Hammett. Try The Long Goodbye, by Robert Altman in the 70's, starring Elliott Gould, for a very interesting more modern take on Chandler. Try The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, Farewell My Lovely as books and/or films, along with The Simple Art of Murder, an incredibly good read on the hardboiled genre.

6. Check out "The Postman Always Rings Twice," and "Ossessione," the first version ever filmed and still the best by far, and an important Italian Neorealist piece. Enjoy and note the differences between what European films feel free to address and how American films tend to water down what is perceived to be the often objectionable focuses of stories. Read some James M. Cain.

7. Check out actors who have starred in many famous noir movies, like Bogart and Robert Mitchum(two favorites of mine are Out of the Past and Night of the Hunter)

7. Check out violations of the typical noir expectations, again comes to mind Altman's "The Long Goodbye" and Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly," whose glowing briefcase you'll see echoed in "Pulp Fiction." These heroes aren't just plunging into worlds of darkness and keeping to a personal code; they're plunging into darkness without the sustaining faith in anything that rescued so many Bogart heroes. They're dirtbags.

8. See if you can find European equivalents and homages to the American Noir, such as older french classics like La Bete Humaine by Renoir and Bob Le Flambeur and lots of great stuff with Jean Vigo, the French counterpart to our Humphrey Bogart(and very good); and French and German New Wave classics like Breathless, Shoot the Piano Player, and American Friend

9. Go for some Asian Noir, like old John Woo stuff, and some of the Kurosawa non-samurai stuff.

There's a lot more in this theme, but that's already a ton of stuff, all real quality and enjoyable stuff you can easily watch and/or read more than once. The more you read about a theme like this -- biographies, film history -- the richer the movies and the more they become even better old friends you'll love to turn to again and again.

Anyway, there are some ideas on how to pursue building a collection in an organized way that actually has goals and a pay-off to it besides just having a random collection of whatever your friends recommend.

[goofball]

you should really tell us the movies you have but haven't watched yet so you don't get repeat suggestions.

but

Glory
Tombstone
Dogma
Grumpy Old Men
Gladiator
Alice in Wonderland
Saving Private Ryan

[Edge34]

Se7en must make this list somewhere.

[Non_Comformist]

I guess I'm weird but watching the DVD's in that manner is still fun for me. I actually have more fun as I work my through the order, add more, look forward to some of the very best. Like I said I guess I'm weird. Your analysis of wanting order and structire is pretty spot on. It probably doesn't surpise you that I wear the same thing everyday (jeans + black Tshirt) although I am working on that and I always wear new socks (although this is just good policy for starting the day off right)

I really like your ideas alot as I enjoy reading as well and get a great deal of staisfaction from goal accomplishment.

Thanks

[Non_Comformist]

[ QUOTE ]
you should really tell us the movies you have but haven't watched yet so you don't get repeat suggestions.

but

Glory
Tombstone
Dogma
Grumpy Old Men
Gladiator
Alice in Wonderland
Saving Private Ryan

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought about that but decided I was interested in hearing all the recommendations even if I had it.

I like all of these expect for two. I have never seen Glory but will add it to the wish list. Alice in Wonderland? Do you mean the cartoon? I have a seve year old daughter who I also build a collection for so this actually works. I don't require her to follow the rules but I do try to get her the better movies.

[Non_Comformist]

[ QUOTE ]
Se7en must make this list somewhere.

[/ QUOTE ]

It goes without saying

[goofball]

i do mean the cartoon. i own and enjoy it and i don't have any children.

[Non_Comformist]

[ QUOTE ]
i do mean the cartoon. i own and enjoy it and i don't have any children.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's cool, I respect people who are able to enjoy things outside the norm.