Unlike Tom, I’m no film buff. In fact, I think I’m a pretty unsophisticated viewer, who doesn’t like her movies too complicated, surreal or difficult. I think M has a pretty good idea of the sorts of movies that appeal to me: action/thrillers, zombies, aliens, animated films. Romantic comedy, not so much. Ghosts, too scary. (And yet flesh-eating mindless hordes – cool!) War, painful and futile. Westerns, meh.
So why am I talking about movies today? Just came across this cool Film Addict quiz, which takes the 250 Top Films on IMDB and lets you work out how many you have seen. It tells me I am only 36.8% addicted, which I could have guessed. The fact that I have seen 37% of these films at all is really thanks to M, who regularly drags me away from the books and shows me movies I usually enjoy, but would not have the motivation to do much about seeing, if left to my own devices. Does this sound grudging? I don’t mean it to – without this prompting from M my knowledge of popular culture would be even worse than it is, and I think it’s important for every librarian to have some knowledge of popular culture. So thanks, M, for making me a better librarian!
Anyway, from this list, I think I want to watch more Akira Kurosawa movies.
Which of these 250 films have you seen? Are you a bigger addict than me? (Hint: if you use the link with my score above, the quiz compares your list with mine.)
As seen at kottke.org.
9 Comments
I got 62.8% (http://plutor.org/filmaddict/?f=2wrjnl7n).
It’s interesting to note that almost all the films I haven’t seen are prior to 1961 and almost all the films I have seen are post 1961.
I like movies and have seen bits of a lot of them but I only came up with 17.6% addicted, very dismal.
I got 13.6%, which about what I’d have expected. I’m very picky when it comes to movies, or video in general. I don’t like stuff that makes me feel bad. I have a very low tolerance level of sad/embarrased/violent/etc. Eg – I watched Wall-E the other day, and had some trouble with the start of it – too sad! I’m glad I kept going though, because the end was good fun.
95.6% for me. I missed out on 11, most from the last couple of years. Maybe a trip to Civic Video is in order.
Kurosawa: Ran is brilliant but it helps if you have a passing familiarity with King Lear. The Hidden Fortress was the model for the first Star Wars movie. Seven Samurai and Rashomon are the critic’s favourites. I think Yojimbo is the best action one and Ikuru is beautiful and heartbreaking.
Hmmm…64.8% which works for me. While I own several Kurosawa, I haven’t actually got round to watching them yet. There’s a few others in that list I inherited but am yet to watch.
I got 35.2% which is fine with me I prefer to read and imagine what the characters look like.But if there had been any Lewis and Martin movies I would have tipped the scales I was an addict to them when I was a kid.
I’m a wuss when it comes to visual media. I can’t bear stuff where kids are involved in war/violence/gut wrenching situations. I enjoy what the vid stores classify as “drama” mostly, e.g. Chocolat Plus funny (mostly British/Australasian humour) and romantic stuff. Loved Amalie.
I occasionally watch the odd thriller or war dvd with DH. I find them ok but I sometimes have to hide my head under the pillow 😉 It’s not the blood and guts that get me, but the humanity and emotion. Last night we watched Downfall which is interesting to me from a historical point of view but again… I couldn’t watch the bits about kids dying/getting killed.
Funnily enough it’s not quite as bad if I’m reading it in a book. I think that’s because I am very much a visual person.
Although Kottge.org is a blog I subscribe to, I hadn’t seen this post. I’m pretty crazy about films, but a busy life with children leaves very little time to go to the cinema. It was clear that I’d seen almost every film from the mid-seventies till the late nineties. Before and after that – big gaps. Because I’ve worked with film I know of most of the old films mentioned, but don’t think I’ve actually seen more than snippets of most of them. So I could only muster 63%.
Thanks Tom – will consider this as and when I need audiovisual entertainment over the break!
Bookishgirl you’re referring to Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin?
Penny I don’t really like gore (apart from zombie gore). I have to be in the mood for “heavy” (emotional) movies, though…
Thanks for stopping by Nene 🙂 63% is pretty impressive, imho!