Tweet Do Most People Think Old Film Buffs Are Nuts?

I know this may sound like a silly question to some, but I find even among my fellow baby-boomers, that they think my love of old films is a strange addiction. Its as if the insipid pop culture of the past 30 or so years has washed over them like a vast new ocean, washing away the sands of silver screen memory.

I find when I meet new people, and they ask--"well, what do you enjoy in your spare time?"...I hesitate.

They cannot grasp someone could spend hundreds of hours a year watching old films... reading about them... corresponding about them..and feeling an enthusiasm for them that equals anything they feel about what's now playing in the multiplex.

Even people in their forties, seem to have an aversion to things black and white. My enthusiasms have even made some friends-- more distant.

I wonder, how does the experience of others here, compare to mine?

I always assumed that, even if they weren't passionate about vintage/classic film, most casual contemporary film fans still would have some interest in preserving film history. But to my dismay, most seem not to care, and are occasionally contemptuous of older, B&W, films. One day I was talking about how I wished more silent films were available on home video, and that copyright law was standing in the way of releases, and a co-worker told me it wouldn't bother her if the copyright holders destroyed them or not, that they had a perfect right to do so. Another time I mentioned watching something on TCM to another co-worker, and she said, "You mean you watch those old black-and-white things?

Even within the TCM organization there has been a gradual inclusion of more 1970s, '80s, and even '90s vintage films to lure a younger audience. They are not going the AMC route, but their intentions are clear. The older fans are dying off, and will be dying off, and they need to change to stay in business. But although most of us lament AMC's demise as a classics only station, in the first year (2002-2003) of their change-over to a post-classics blockbuster format, AMC's share of younger viewers (younger that 50) jumped 33%.

I believe that even if they were exposed to these films, most casual movie fans would dismiss the styles of acting quaintly amusing, and production methods as primitive. The only people who are passionate about these films are buffs and scholars. A mass audience for them just ain't there. And I will admit that we probably seem like Trekkies to a lot of the so-called normal movie fans. In my own case, I cannot imagine going out to see a contemporary movie unless it's something that recalls the older style, like The Artist. I hate the vapid, shallow writing that panders to the expectations of video game addicts. There's just something about CGI that repulses me. If that makes me a nut, so be it. By the way, I haven't found anyone in my workplace - a university library - who has seen The Artist.

In my old job, I had several people stare at me like I was nuts when I said I loved silent movies. Here at the Herrick, there are plenty of silent, foreign or classic film fans, and virtually everyone has seen THE ARTIST.

[Mike Gebert]

It's okay, I feel the same way about people who know anything about sports.

All fanatatics are nuts. Doesn't matter if you're a trekkie, NASCAR-er, civil war re-enacter, Titanic enthusiast or old film buff.

Anyone who puts that much time and .. well ... passion into something, especially something outside of the cultural mainstream is a nut to someone who doesn't share that same passion.

We're no better or worse than anyone else.

You think WE'RE nuts when we get into fps discussions? Talk to a titanic enthusiast who wishes to exonerate Captain Lord and the Californian from their non-involvement the night the Titanic went down.

or worse, tell an opera buff why you don't care for his/her diva-of-choice.

Good point, Harlett.....

Most of my friends instantly develop that "glazed eyes" syndrome if I ever mention a silent film or some obscure talkie from the pre-war era.

Oh well. I don't need a crowd to be happily nuts!

But to my dismay, most seem not to care, and are occasionally contemptuous of older, B&W, films. One day I was talking about how I wished more silent films were available on home video, and that copyright law was standing in the way of releases, and a co-worker told me it wouldn't bother her if the copyright holders destroyed them or not, that they had a perfect right to do so. Another time I mentioned watching something on TCM to another co-worker, and she said, "You mean you watch those old black-and-white things?

In a general business setting, such attitudes from co-workers would be disheartening, but hardly shocking; on a university campus, let alone in a library, they're unbelievable...& profoundly depressing.

Most of my friends instantly develop that "glazed eyes" syndrome if I ever mention a silent film or some obscure talkie from the pre-war era.

How well I know that look...& therefor practice lock-jaw. And I get lots of practice. Try (if you're a fool) explaining to any but a select handful of the millions of plastic-addicted canoests why you'd sooner smash your hand-made paddle than be caught on the water in anything but a wooden canoe. Or try explaining to any but a "saving remnant" of the millions of American fisherman why you'll stay home & mow the lawn before fishing with anything but split-bamboo. Lots of practice.

My experiences are not bad.
One day I found out that my friend's boyfriend ( late twenties ) knew who Lon Chaney was, and we also had a talk about METROPOLIS.
I lent my copy of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM to my other friend ( also late twenties ) and she enjoyed the movie.
I mentioned my appreciation of silents on a message board for my fellow professionals ,and they said , ' Go see THE ARTIST ". Also , when I gave a link to the unmasking scene in Chaney's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA my post got several " likes ".

I lent my copy of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM to my other friend ( also late twenties ) and she enjoyed the movie.

I chatted up a young male co-worker at one of my jobs (he seemed to be another "loner" type) and found out he liked cult films. I asked him if he had heard of FREAKS, and he had, so I loaned him my copy of Chaney's THE UNKNOWN. He was impressed.

Try (if you're a fool) explaining to any but a select handful of the millions of plastic-addicted canoests why you'd sooner smash your hand-made paddle than be caught on the water in anything but a wooden canoe.

A true purist wouldn't be seen in anything but a birch-bark model or maybe a dugout. I speak as a Mainer.

I don't know if most people think old film buffs are nuts, but I think so.

Bob

I don't know if most people think old film buffs are nuts, but I think so.

Bob

Word. We're wearing the pointy ears and speaking Klingon.

I don't know if most people think old film buffs are nuts, but I think so.

Bob

Word. We're wearing the pointy ears and speaking Klingon.

Of course, most of us are silent, so our lips move and no sound issues forth. But if you can read lips...

Well, when I was working, I couldn't have cared less what my co-workers thought (if any of them were capable of such activity). After all work consists of getting up at a time you don't wish to, going somewhere you don't want to go to and associating with people you would never choose to meet. Besides, I knew nothing about football or motor cars which seemed to be the only subjects known to male co-workers, or shoes or boy bands which were the confined subjects of female co-workers.

I think that it is fear of the unknown that makes most people not wish to see old pictures. Even the other day talking to a couple, he said he couldn't look at a silent picture - with all that fast movement and scratchy prints. Luckily I was able to educate him that not all silents are in a deccrepid condition. That seeing a silent with an orchestral scrore is quite a powerful experience as you are more emotionally drawn into the action on the screen. At the end of my little "lecture" they both seemed quite impressed and will go and seek out "The Artist".

My son has sat through a number of old pictures with me, but when he visits me he has insisted that I only play pictures that are in colour and made in the 21st Century,

I think that we may as well continue to talk about our interest and not clam up. Why should we not have the right to bore people - I have been bored to death with dinner conversations about the delights of working, buying real estate, the ins and outs of a myriad of sports and how to dissect a number of motor cars.

Mike Gebert wrote:

It's okay, I feel the same way about people who know anything about sports.

I've always wondered why anyone would watch the Superbowl, when they could watch three movies instead.

Most people don't care, they put you in the same grouping as Star Trek geeks, cross dressers and potheads. Face it, for old movies, "the parade's gone by." The only people interested in really old movies, silent films, are a few old movie fans and copyright lawyers from media conglomerates. Old movie posters, on the other hand, have tons of art collector fans.

In my old job, I had several people stare at me like I was nuts when I said I loved silent movies. Here at the Herrick, there are plenty of silent, foreign or classic film fans, and virtually everyone has seen THE ARTIST.

That's similar to my experience. In earlier days, surrounded by people who generally didn't care about vintage movies, or who were at best slightly interested, I was inclined to keep my mouth shut on the subject. Now I'm at the Performing Arts Library, happily surrounded by film geeks, show queens, opera diva-lovers, and the like. If there are any sports fans among us, they're pretty quiet. Everybody saw The Artist, by the way, although there were some disagreements about its merits.

Sometimes when I go to screenings I encounter fellow film buffs who are definitely nuts, but as long as they don't disrupt the proceedings I don't care. Crazy people go to sporting events too, or so I hear.

I've always wondered why anyone would watch the Superbowl, when they could watch three movies instead.

I've found the Superbowl is the absolute best time to get into my apartment building's laundry room

I have relatives who respect old films, but vaguely. I told my brother how much I enjoyed the silent version of Chicago, and he said "They made a silent movie out of a musical?"

I used to attend Film Festivals years back. I stopped going when I had to sit through a series of short films made by some (as they call it these days) "Film Makers" who had conned a grant out of some unwary Government instrumentality.

To give you some idea of what these films were like, there is one that I cannot forget having to sit through for over 20 minutes. All it consisted of was a close up of a head of a rake scraping up dirt over and over again.

Give me the older fillums anyday!

Frankly, I don't really care for what other people think. When I was an adolescent in a Paris suburb, with boys of the same age I was going to the local movie theaters to watch "current" pictures like "The Crimson Pirate" or "Paris Holiday", in their French-dubbed versions. But at the same time I had a kind of secret life, going alone to Paris to watch, in their original versions with French subs, "Tarantula!", "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" or "The Mummy's Hand". At 15, I saw much older movies at the Cinémathèque Française, including silents of course.
In a sense I was lucky. I worked as an accountant and also made a myriad of other jobs to "make a living" but also started to write for movie magazines at 17, and later co-founded some French magazines such as "L'Ecran Fantastique". So, almost all of my friends came from the same background.
However, a lot of younger people love the same movies. My grandniece, who lives in Baltimore, recently made a trip in France and Great-Britain for presenting us her fiancé. He is only 36 and collects silents and early talkies. Perhaps his origins (American, but also Hawaian, Danish and Chinese ascendance) made him more open to other cultures, and this helps if you want study the past, in history, books, movies, etc.
The difference between most of the current generation comes perhaps from the fact that, in the mid-Fifties, none of us made any difference between a color or a black-and-white movie, and between an older and a (then) "new" movie. So it was possible, in movie theaters, to watch "The Mummy's Hand" (1940) and "The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) the same day, as well as, say, "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari" at the Cinémathèque in the evening. After the war, a lot of US movies were suddenly released in France (as they were of course forbidden during the Occupation), so in 1956 for instance, a 1943 feature could be programmed as a "new release" movie.
In Paris, it's still possible to watch a lot of b&w movies in theaters - but probably not in little towns, excepted in "special seances". In America, I'm not sure...
We can also watch b&w pictures everyday on television. And even old TV series, some dating from the Fifties. But, how much people really watch these programmes, I don't know.
These people who don't care about the loss of our cultural heritage are the same who thinks that Stonehenge, or Carnac's megaliths in Brittany, could be erased to make place for modern constructions. I really don't care for them.

[Mike Gebert]

I've found the Superbowl is the absolute best time to get into my apartment building's laundry room

I usually use it to go to some restaurant that's normally hard to get into.

It's not just the "outsiders" who might disdain a Film Buff's interests. At the time my Wheeler & Woolsey book appeared (1994), the head of a society that pays homage to one of the great silent comedians thought it was weird that I would waste so much time writing such a book. I told the person there are already many books out covering all the top comics, it was about time that the lesser-known talents received their due. I think I got a giggle in reply. So be it!

(Between ourselves...I'd even enjoy reading a book about -- Clark & McCullough.)

Well, Ed summed this all up completely.
Everyone has their own interests and obsessions, which create fan bases, which branches off into sub-sects, which creates animosity and inter-community rivalries, which degenerates into name calling and flame wars on Blog sites, which fuels religious hatred and the next thing you know Israel and Hamas are staring each other down in a death match.

And now if you don't mind, I have to head off to Jonestown to catch a showing of THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC and drink the Kool-Aid.

If Passion is on the bill, do yourself a favor & drink the Kool-aid first.

If Passion is on the bill, do yourself a favor & drink the Kool-aid first.

Dosed with a bit of acid to make it interesting (hey, that wart is talking to me...oh no! she's melting!! SHE'S MELTING!!!!!).

I don't know how, but it was much easier and I had good fun sitting through Jacques Rivette's 3+ hour '70s opuses. Passion did not a thing for me, and I've seen hundreds of arthouse films. It was brave to do it that way, but to me bravery just isn't enough.

I don't care what people think either. I like watching silent and pre-1960 films in any setting, and also enjoy some contemporary titles. I was born in the 1970s and although I can remember old films on the TV, I had to start collecting in order to fill in the gaps - and of course, once you find one performer, you find others and the journey becomes very complex and lengthy.

My husband - not a film buff - now likes silents and a range of oldies too

I often come across Old Film Buffs who declare other Old Film Buffs to be nuts if they go too far back. "Sure, 30s and 40s classics are great, but how can you even stand to watch silents?" Much the same goes for music fans who are into jazz, but with the understanding that jazz really began in the late 1940s, and anything before that is the Cro-Magnon era of art and not really worthy of anyone's attention.

Of course we're all nuts, as Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat so eloquently formulated it:

`What sort of people live about here?'

`In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, `lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, `lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

(Between ourselves...I'd even enjoy reading a book about -- Clark & McCullough.)

Oh, so would I. Mum's the word!

Does anyone know who painted the first picture and when?
Does anyone knows who made the first sculpture and when?

Art Connoisseurs (buffs) enjoy the respect and envy of their
peers (not to mention a glass of Chardonnay at high profile
gatherings).

Motion Pictures are among the few art forms that we can trace
from the very beginning.With this in mind, being a film buff and
preservationist is actually honorable.

Let the art crowd have their Vermeers and Degas. I'll be just fine
with my Vidors and Tourneurs.

Does anyone know who painted the first picture and when?
Does anyone knows who made the first sculpture and when?

Motion Pictures are among the few art forms that we can trace
from the very beginning.With this in mind, being a film buff and
preservationist is actually honorable.

?? Not getting the logic. We know when disco began. Also Cheetohs. No one said we weren't honorable (wait, any takers on that?). We just have an odd kick to our gallops.