My friend Raquel at the Out of the Past Blog has been doing a series where she's been tackling the movies on her Cinema Shame list. This list is different for everyone and consists of films that every cinephile on the planet has seen except you. My list is embarrassing. And I've been a classic film fan for most of my life. I'm so ashamed of some of the movies on my personal list that I've actually lied about seeing them at times. I'm a monster.
So after being inspired by Raquel I've really been trying to tackle it, and have done quite well so far. My biggest shame was Citizen Kane (1941). The cannon of classic cinema, and once named AFI's greatest film ever made.
What took me so long? My Senior year of high school I was the only person in my Miami, Florida public school who knew who Orson Welles was let alone heard of the quintessential classic Citizen Kane. This was before streaming services or Amazon Prime so I had to wait for it to play on Turner Classic Movies before I could watch it. One day I was innocently sitting in my acting class when the instructor decided it would be a great idea to talk about the movie. My ears perked up excited to participate in any discussion on classic film when he just flat out told us the ending.
WHY?!?
I was so upset. Of course he didn't think anyone that age would care or had even heard of it, but he was so wrong. Someone that day did care. And someone felt the need to go the next 13 years without seeing it.
I still wanted to, but the strong desire to see it was gone since I knew the twist. Could I enjoy the film as much? Then this tweet happened:
Woah.
One rainy Sunday morning I had no plans and it was on TCM On Demand. I cuddled up in bed with my dog and finally watched my greatest Cinema Shame. And I am happy to report, it did not disappoint. I mean, WOW. I absolutely loved it. A lot of times you hear how great a movie is and when you finally watch it you're left disappointed because it didn't live up to all of the hype built around it. For me Citizen Kane was everything I wanted it to be. And honestly, knowing the ending was better, because I was able to pick up on other things throughout the film I wouldn't have noticed if I was too busy spending that time trying to figure it out. And the end still had an impact on me, the same feeling I think those surprised by it would have. I also believe that seeing it in my thirties as oppose to my teens made a difference. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much had I not been older.
Moral of the story: embrace your Cinema Shame! There are some films that were meant to take a while to see. What are some of the movies on your list?
Here is my top 10 (every single one has an explanation):
Metropolis (1927)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Gun Crazy (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
La Dolce Vita (1954)
Picnic (1956)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
*My list is much longer than the 10 here and since starting this at the beginning of March I've seen 6 of the films from my overall Cinema Shame catalog.*