Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Any cult film fans out there?
 
  • Post
  • Reply
I, Butthole
Jun 30, 2007

Begin the operations of the gas chambers, gas schools, gas universities, gas libraries, gas museums, gas dance halls, and gas threads, etcetera.
I DEMAND IT

gurragadon posted:

So if I’m understanding you correctly a cult movie the way your defining is not only obscure but also inaccessible to be truly considered a "cult movie." Do you consider movies like Pink Flamingos cult movies? Even though I would argue its somewhat well known but I would also say pretty offensive and inaccessible overall. I guess what I mean is do you think that a requirement is also the obscurity and is there a level of popularity where it becomes disqualifies in your opinion?

For the movies you talk about I’m interested in knowing what you think about why people like those weird or offensive movies as too. Maybe something about it being obscure, or maybe its just because its something different than the viewer has seen before.

Do you in particular like or have a favorite of any of the movies you listed? I would love to watch any of them and hearing what your opinions are about it.

Also, I know the category of “cult films” is really broad and kind of undefined but the movie doesn’t have to part of the “canon” or cult movies to be considered. Saying that there even is a “canon” of cult movies would start disqualifying them I would think anyway.

If you're doing academic stuff look up the Jeffrey Sconce article “Trashing the Academy: Taste, Excess, and an Emerging Politics of Cinematic Style" and the term he uses, paracinema. It might be a more accurate term than the blanket "cult" definition and might help you narrow down both questions and examples.

E: also Jack Sargeant has a recentish book (2017 iirc) on underground cinema where he discusses the semiotics and evolution of the term from the midnight debut screenings of Eraserhead to modern day The Room screenings.

I, Butthole fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Sep 24, 2019

* # ¿ Sep 24, 2019 11:34
  • Quote
Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 11, 2024 11:30
  • Quote
I, Butthole
Jun 30, 2007

Begin the operations of the gas chambers, gas schools, gas universities, gas libraries, gas museums, gas dance halls, and gas threads, etcetera.
I DEMAND IT

gurragadon posted:

Thanks for the book recommendations, I do like the idea of using the term paracinema instead of “cult” because that term does seem to get a lot of blowback. Is the Jack Sargeant book your recommending “Flesh and Excess: On Underground Film”?

Yeah, that's the one. It's a good read and complements the Sconce article well.

* # ¿ Sep 24, 2019 18:33
  • Quote
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Any cult film fans out there?