film-blindness

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

all my life i've been rubbish at "getting" even the most simple of movies. i find myself getting confused about plot; i can't tell characters from each other; i often don't understand why the characters are doing what they are doing etc... This drives my fellow movie-goers crazy cos I'm always going "Who's that?" "Where are they going now?" "Which one's James Bond?" ad nauseum.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a film with a complicated plot. In fact I enjoy films like Primer, Donnie Darko and Howl's Moving Castle; films with quite surrealist plotlines but which move relatively slowly compared to Hollywood action movies, the majority of which I just won't understand.

Does anyone else have this? Why does this kind of thing happen with me? It's been suggested it might be that I'm looking almost too deeply into the film when there isn't that much to "get". I often find myself getting wrapped up in the overall auteurism of the film and forget to actually watch what is happening on screen.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 20 July 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

ebay-blindness

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 20 July 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

I'm a bit like this, doglatin. My main problem is I'm bad with names *and* faces, so yeah, I'll think two characters are the same one and then someone refers to someone else off-camera and I can't remember who that is. Also, I tend to drift and think about things (in the film) and miss key conversations that are taking place.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 20 July 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

i can get several seasons into drama series without knowing people's names. Star Trek Enterprise finished before i'd got a grasp on the peoples' names, for instance.

but i also find you don't need to know names - traits and previous actions are prety much enough mst of the time.

> auteurism

ah, about 3 letters out there 8)

― koogy wonderland (koogs), Thursday, 20 July 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

I've seen The Big Sleep four times without understanding the plot.

― Revivalist (Revivalist), Thursday, 20 July 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

With Big Sleep it's film blindness if you see it four times and think you understand it.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:13 (nineteen years ago)

this is pretty common, i think, not getting plots.

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:26 (nineteen years ago)

In many films the plots don't make that much sense anyway :-)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:30 (nineteen years ago)

I often find myself getting wrapped up in the overall auteurism of the film and forget to actually watch what is happening on screen.

i kind of did this for a long time after coming into contact with (what now strikes me as) really bad formalist criticism. measuring films against the classical realist model and whatnot.

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

it's happening to me more as i get older.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

i think it possibly shows some kind of alt. intelligence for dog latin to be film blind to this extent. yopu just have to work out what it means and apply it to something.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

During the height of my landscaping work season I'm too tired at night to "get" most movies. You don't know why people are doing the things they do until the plot comes together, and by then I'm asleep. And the face thing. Yeah.
I've been watching tv shows on dvd. That works. They're designed to hook you in the first ten minutes. Perfect for a brain-dead gardener.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

I have kind of the opposite problem? films make total sense while i'm watching them, and I can't understand why anyone wouldn't get it, and then the moment I get outside I can't explain what happened or how any particular tricky plot bit was explained, but I'm sure it worked. My brain is a little too good at papering over the cracks, I think.

― permanent revolution (cis), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:56 (nineteen years ago)

i just GIS'd 'suture' -- i don't recommend it.

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Thursday, 20 July 2006 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I have this, but I call it "film deafness" because it reminds me of tone deafness.

― Kaet (kate), Thursday, 20 July 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

I can be like this, DL. Which is why I have no use for stuff like The Godfather or Guy Ritchie movies. So many men! Some of whom look similar! All making nefarious, convoluted plans!

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 20 July 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

I can be very bad at watching films, and am usually quite reluctant to actually watch one, especially if I think the effort of concentration for nearly 2 hours won't be made up for in entertainment or educational value.

It's a shame, because some people are always saying "let's watch a film", and I am always having to say I don't want to and would rather sit in front of stupid television programs that I can talk over.

― Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 20 July 2006 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

'godfather 2' is actually incomprehensible, it's not just you.

xpost

― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Thursday, 20 July 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.