Thursday Movie Picks: Cinephiles in Movies

 

For the 17th week of 2022 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We go into the subject of cinephiles in movies as there are those who just love to watch movies and talk about films. Here are my three picks:

1. Cinema Paradiso

Giuseppe Tornatore’s touching story about a relationship between a young boy and a film projectionist at a small cinema in a small town in Sicily is truly one of the finest films ever made. Most notably for the fact that it showcases a boy’s love for the films and see what this projectionist would do as he would guide the boy to become a filmmaker who would be torn in reaching for his dreams or to seek another love. It is a film that still warms the heart as well as give audiences a good cry.

2. The Dreamers

Bernardo Bertolucci’s film set in the events of May of 1968 in Paris may be known more for its sexual content yet it is a film about two French siblings who meet an American student through their love of cinema as they also take part in what is happening in those times. Notably the closing of the Cinematheque Francaise is where they meet as they talk about films but also engage in sex as it does play into the different political ideals between this young American and these two French siblings. At the same time, they do things inspired by films as it also include an appearances from Jean-Pierre Leaud recreating his moment at the Cinematheque protest.

3. Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

From Xan Cassavetes is a documentary about one of the very first pay-cable channels in America in Southern California that showcased films uncut, uncensored, and commercial-free and then a programmer in Jerry Harvey came in and made this channel something bigger. A channel that showed all sorts of foreign films, art films, do film festivals on certain themes or filmmakers, and would even hold events that gave films that had been re-cut by studios and be shown in their intended version. It is a documentary that is still a must see for anyone that loves cinema.

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