Snobbery, the superior form of emotional expression.

February 22, 2010 at 8:17 pm | Posted in Snobbery | 5 Comments

I am a snob, at least when it comes to films. Yes, it does feel great to know that I seem to know more than most people and that I am not ignorant when it comes to different kinds of issues. You should hear the dumbest and most awful things I hear from people when they talk about serious issues and stuff. I know I am limiting myself to one medium but maybe next time when I do find the time and when I think I have watched enough to know almost everything there is to know about cinema (which may be never or in the far future), I will get to read more books that are outside the bestsellers and the canon, more of the ones that really make you think and get you out of your comfort zone, that really test your patience, and that offers a lot of possibilities and a whole lot of new points of view, of perceiving things. In the meantime, I expect to get all of those in celluloid, along with the frequent doses of entertainment, camp and escapism which keep me sane.

My taste in books and music is pretty much the same as the average person’s. So I don’t get to laugh at people’s poor and superficial choice in books. Although I do not want to end up being caught reading those readable yet awful bestsellers that seem to be dumbed down for our Hollywood movie-going audience, I still have yet to read sci-fi, philosophical novels, graphic novels, pulp magazines, and all other subgenres and forms of literature. I do read but not as obsessively as I do with movies. Just last year, I only read a number of books, probably around 6-10. Can’t recall. That’s not a lot especially since I didn’t include books that I didn’t bother finishing out of boredom and lack of interest.

When I don’t like a film, I still force myself to finish the whole damn thing even if it means doing something else or having my mind someplace else while watching it. Maybe, the ending will make up for the rest of it. Maybe, my patience will be rewarded. Nah, usually the case is that I still think the film is awful. With books, I can’t do that since I don’t want to spend weeks or a month finishing something that I am not really interested in. At least, films are, what, a minute to 10 hours long. I still have yet to prepare myself for a film more than six hours long. And to think that most of the time, I think a two-hour film should be cut because it is too long or just too boring. Oh, I can handle minimal activity and dialogue in films… when I love them and I see the point of the whole thing. Not when it is too self-indulgent.

I literally roll my eyes whenever people, usually people who label themselves as cinephiles or film buffs, imitate critics and pull off “personal” lists of their favorite films, including only films either listed in IMDB’s top 250 films (which is just a ranking in popularity, the same thing as the box office list) or claimed as the greatest movies ever by film critics, students, and historians. If personal favorite films are only films that aren’t outside the film canon, only films that are widely recognized, highly promoted and loved by most, then I don’t know what personal means anymore. Isn’t something personal supposed to be something that is unique, individualistic and of your own?

And why are people unwilling to watch anything that is not in the English language, is slow-paced, is non-narrative, has minimal dialogue, has been made more than a decade ago, makes you question your own belief system, and gets you out of your comfort zone? Must people only watch films that reinforce their preconceived ideas about the world? Must people only watch films that make them comfortable and cozy in their world of goodness, hypocrisy and abundant wealth? Guess what, there’s a whole world out there that you don’t know of. Films aren’t only about white people either whining about their superficial problems and how life sucks or indulging themselves in their first-world comfort. There is also… War. Poverty. Indifference of the bourgeoisie. Evil. Other religions. Communism. Feminism. Revolutions. Art. Sodomy. Sadomasochism. Discrimination. Repression. People of other races and countries. Non-English languages. Terrorism. And all other themes that I can’t think of right now. Why limit yourself when there is a whole different kind of world other than what’s been laid out in front of you?