Weekly questions’ comment sections are left open for one week. This question has expired and the comments section locked.
What was the first film that made you want to know who made it?
I know, I know, this is a difficult question for most of us to answer. Some of us can’t recall our childhood with this level of detail and I count myself as one of these memory-addled individuals. So, perhaps another way to phrase it is:
What was the first film that rocked your world so hard that you needed to know about everything that went into making it?
For me, the answer is STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI. I was almost when it hit screens, but I vividly recall an “Entertainment Tonight” behind-the-scenes preview of the Tatooine pleasure barge sequence that appeared in the months leading up to its release. Soon enough, I was the proud owner of numerous film magazines and special one-off magazines discussing the film, its special effects, its filmmakers. After RETURN’s release, I was also gifted for Christmas THE ART OF THE RETURN OF THE JEDI, a book I devoured so completely that, by the following July, my parents had to replace it for me. This second copy of the book, held together by long-yellowed tape, still sits on my bookshelf today.
5AM StoryTalk is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
In English, AMÉLIE; en français LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMÉLIE POULAIN (2001)
Dead Poets Society. I think it was the film that made me properly wonder about who MADE film, all those components: the director (Peter Weir), the writer (Tom Schulman), the composer (Maurice Jarre)… ET was the film that made me love film and cinema-going, I think - on that fundamental gut level (I was a little girl and in BITS coming out of it!). Dead Poets Society was teenage me being moved and excited… and actually start to think about how films were made, and who the players were.
Return of the Jedi was also one of my first cinematic experiences but I was more interested in the cast rather than the film making
When I saw John Carpenters, The Thing for the first time a few years later, I was genuinely in awe at how the effects were possible and that got me obsessed with all things Carpenter and Rob Bottin. It’s still my favourite movie to this day
I was born in 81 and I remember just how popular Steven Spielberg was growing up, thanks to ET. Even as a kid i read a lot of Entertainment Weekly & TV guide, but the first time i ever picked up a Starlog was because Gremlins 2 was on the cover! Opened my world up to a whole lot of awesome!
I think the film that made me appreciate that film was an art form rather than just a mode of entertainment was probably West Side Story when I was maybe 12 or 13. There is something about that step back from reality with a musical that allows you to really appreciate the spectacle and artistry. For me it is such an emotive film too. I love everything about it.
My answer is the 2002 Portuguese-language masterpiece "City of God." Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund create a captivating, pulse-pounding saga with so much soul, gravitas, and heartbreak. It's an electric character-driven powerhouse where the city's explosive backdrop sets the stage for one of the greatest films of the 21st century.
I love this question! For me there are two: Fight Club (I wanted to know everything there was to know about the film, the book - first time I really thought about craft in film), and When Harry Met Sally (was mostly curious about who wrote it).
Gotta be Star Wars for me too, though as a child the first six had already all come out so I think in some ways I viewed them all as the same, but I'd always watch the bonus features.
Great write up here Cole. I’m thinking it’s got to be Indiana Jones. Probably the first one. Because by the second one I already knew the BTS’s stuff. 👍
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Saw at the cinema half a dozen times on first release, on my own, I was 14 and was moved to wonder every time I saw it. Read all the Starlog and Starburst articles on the making of, the novelisation, the fotonovel, Bob Balaban’s wonderful film diary. Whether it was wish fulfilment of being taken to the stars or the thrills of consummate film making I don’t know. I still watch it at least once a year, I’d have to say it’s Spielberg’s best, a near perfect movie. It made me seek out and fall in love with Truffaut’s own oeuvre too.
The movie that comes to mind is 12 monkeys. I got it from Blockbuster and watched it multiple times on the same day.
Another one that had a big impact on me around the same time was Run Lola Run. I watched it in the movie theater and liked it so much, I went home, and got my mom to go watch it with me again in the movie theater (I was a teenager at the time).
Funny that's this week's question, I wrote about that on Notes recently. For me, it was SEVEN. It blew my mind, and I needed to know EVERYTHING about how it was made. I had purchased the actual movie theatre poster, so in my bedroom, it took up the whole wall facing my bed. I would fall asleep reciting the names "Andrew Kevin Walker... Darius Khondji... Howard shore..." I re-watched it recently, after years, and it's been such a strange experience. Emotional, but in a detached way. It was all so familiar, but I was also seeing it with new eyes. Layered. I plan on writing more about this.
Dead Poets Society. I think it was the film that made me properly wonder about who MADE film, all those components: the director (Peter Weir), the writer (Tom Schulman), the composer (Maurice Jarre)… ET was the film that made me love film and cinema-going, I think - on that fundamental gut level (I was a little girl and in BITS coming out of it!). Dead Poets Society was teenage me being moved and excited… and actually start to think about how films were made, and who the players were.
Return of the Jedi was also one of my first cinematic experiences but I was more interested in the cast rather than the film making
When I saw John Carpenters, The Thing for the first time a few years later, I was genuinely in awe at how the effects were possible and that got me obsessed with all things Carpenter and Rob Bottin. It’s still my favourite movie to this day
I was born in 81 and I remember just how popular Steven Spielberg was growing up, thanks to ET. Even as a kid i read a lot of Entertainment Weekly & TV guide, but the first time i ever picked up a Starlog was because Gremlins 2 was on the cover! Opened my world up to a whole lot of awesome!
I think the film that made me appreciate that film was an art form rather than just a mode of entertainment was probably West Side Story when I was maybe 12 or 13. There is something about that step back from reality with a musical that allows you to really appreciate the spectacle and artistry. For me it is such an emotive film too. I love everything about it.
My answer is the 2002 Portuguese-language masterpiece "City of God." Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund create a captivating, pulse-pounding saga with so much soul, gravitas, and heartbreak. It's an electric character-driven powerhouse where the city's explosive backdrop sets the stage for one of the greatest films of the 21st century.
I love this question! For me there are two: Fight Club (I wanted to know everything there was to know about the film, the book - first time I really thought about craft in film), and When Harry Met Sally (was mostly curious about who wrote it).
Gotta be Star Wars for me too, though as a child the first six had already all come out so I think in some ways I viewed them all as the same, but I'd always watch the bonus features.
Great write up here Cole. I’m thinking it’s got to be Indiana Jones. Probably the first one. Because by the second one I already knew the BTS’s stuff. 👍
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Saw at the cinema half a dozen times on first release, on my own, I was 14 and was moved to wonder every time I saw it. Read all the Starlog and Starburst articles on the making of, the novelisation, the fotonovel, Bob Balaban’s wonderful film diary. Whether it was wish fulfilment of being taken to the stars or the thrills of consummate film making I don’t know. I still watch it at least once a year, I’d have to say it’s Spielberg’s best, a near perfect movie. It made me seek out and fall in love with Truffaut’s own oeuvre too.
The movie that comes to mind is 12 monkeys. I got it from Blockbuster and watched it multiple times on the same day.
Another one that had a big impact on me around the same time was Run Lola Run. I watched it in the movie theater and liked it so much, I went home, and got my mom to go watch it with me again in the movie theater (I was a teenager at the time).
Oh hi, AMÉLIE! :)
Funny that's this week's question, I wrote about that on Notes recently. For me, it was SEVEN. It blew my mind, and I needed to know EVERYTHING about how it was made. I had purchased the actual movie theatre poster, so in my bedroom, it took up the whole wall facing my bed. I would fall asleep reciting the names "Andrew Kevin Walker... Darius Khondji... Howard shore..." I re-watched it recently, after years, and it's been such a strange experience. Emotional, but in a detached way. It was all so familiar, but I was also seeing it with new eyes. Layered. I plan on writing more about this.
I love reading everyone's replies!