Robert K. Elder, ed., The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors On Their Epiphanies in the Dark (Chicago Review Press, 2011). I remember a book similar to this one from many years ago, being delighted that one of my favorites from an early age, Costa-Gavras' Z (1969) was a movie that had changed someone else's life besides mine. And here's another delight: filmmaker Alex Gibney championing another one of my favorites, Luis Buñuel's El ángel exterminador / The Exterminating Angel (1962), which I've shown to Latin American Studies classes with great enthusiasm.
Elder sagely notes in the introduction: "Movies are not just movies, they are mirrors of ourselves, our society, and our dreams -- even if we're not quite ready for them. They make us laugh, cry, ponder our humanity, and escape from it entirely. . . And, for a few, movies make them want to go out and make more movies" (page vii). Or, I might add, they inspire us to see more, write more, draw more, photograph more, discuss more, learn more, paint more, look for more, do more.
How about you? Is there a film that changed your life? A book? Some other work of art or construction that moved you into another sphere?
Today's Rune: Movement.
1 comment:
I've not really given much thought to films that changed my life. Some have certainly been strong influences on me. Once upon a time in the west comes to mind.
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