Ignorance is not just bliss, it's a pre-requisite! movies / shows where having too much factual or cultural expertise / background forever locked you out of its intended appreciation

I was thinking about how Schwarzenegger offered to do the German dubs for his movies, and they were all, thanks but no thanks, because he apparently sounds ridiculous in German in a way that is apparently unacceptably more ridiculous than how he sounds in English, so now there is a generation of German speakers who have been robbed of the sublime pleasure that is "Get to the choppaaaa", not because they don't know English (since many do), but because they know German too much.

Literally anything with Barry Keoghan in where people rave about how handsome he looks, and to me his face is one you’d see walking down any random street in Ireland. It’s not like he’s Cillian Murphy!

i had no idea cillian murphy was so old! so that locks me out of intended appreciation when he plays a schoolboy in the future. he's almost 50! i thought he was young. he's also 4 feet tall which i learned watching an awards show.

anyway, if you know what horrible things some cancelled person did that would lock you out from enjoyment. there must be SO many people (most?) who have no idea about celebrity real lives and just blissfully watch kevin spacey movie marathons in their rumpus room.

I can't ... handle ... anything ... with Tom Cruise.. just can't believe it, and can't suspend disbelieft

is Arnie a case of Germans being biased against Austrians?

knowing that the star of the handmaid's tale show was a scientologist definitely ruined that one for me. so weird to see a cult member playing that role. and, again, most people probably have no idea and don't care.

Otm

is Arnie a case of Germans being biased against Austrians?

Schindler’s List

any movie or show with a poker scene, it seems like nobody who writes these has any sense of the basic rules or the terminology, also half the hands they show are so improbable that they'd wind up triggering the Bad Beat Jackpot if they were played in a casino

Rounders is probably better at this than most (as it should be, the whole movie revolves around poker), but two things really bother me - one, the plot kicking off with the notion that Teddy KGB "outplays" him on that AAA99 vs AA999 hand (there's not a single poker player who wouldn't go broke there), two is Matt Damon's line of "if it's just luck why are the same 5 guys always at the final table?"...that has never really been true

Any film or show that represents the British upper classes as anything other than rapacious, asset-stripping malefactors, i.e. most films or shows on the subject

so weird to see a cult member playing that role. and, again, most people probably have no idea and don't care.

I knew she was a Scientologist and I still didn't care. I wasn't going let it spoil my enjoyment of the show, plus who's to say she isn't a victim herself?

If you're a Scientologist, you're a victim of Scientology.

I was thinking about how Schwarzenegger offered to do the German dubs for his movies, and they were all, thanks but no thanks, because he apparently sounds ridiculous in German in a way that is apparently unacceptably more ridiculous than how he sounds in English, so now there is a generation of German speakers who have been robbed of the sublime pleasure that is "Get to the choppaaaa", not because they don't know English (since many do), but because they know German too much.

Related: my wife, who is French, grew up loving many Arnie movies but dubbed into French. So the first time we watched one in English she was very confused as to why he sounds like that. Just wild to me that you could grow up with this guy's presence and NOT have the accent be an integral part of it.

I hate poorly-mimed scenes of people playing musical instruments. Even if the playing technique is adequate for the sounds that are being produced, or the movements are mostly in time with the music, I object when the pitches don't match what is shown.

It's kind of hard to say this without coming off like an arrogant asshole, but a lot of the A24 stuff has felt to me like films that you can get very excited about if you're a young cinephile and haven't seen the stuff they're inspired by. If you do it's not that they're bad, just kinda...there.

This would also apply to more music than I'd care to mention but I don't know that I want to open that can.

I guess its not that different from being raised a hardcore christian and then continuing that hardcoreness into adulthood. she was raised in scientology a la neil gaiman. if i knew that she was a fervent born-again christian i would probably feel the same way about her being on that show. it would weird me out. i just assume that scientologists are REALLY into it and the cult has a long history of abuse/brainwashing. like catholicism. only with more aliens.

xxxpost

any specific examples, Daniel_Rf? I like to think I'm fairly well-versed in film but I'm not usually let down by A24. Insofar as modern films are concerned, and the amount they churn out I'd say the quality remains fairly high overall

In a perverse way, aren't people behind the camera too versed in how the sausage is made locked out of the very thing they're trying to make? If you're a director or writer, you're cursed with not just being inspired, but knowing exactly which parts and to what degree you're cribbing from other stuff, not to mention watching it over and over again in the process of putting it together.

i don't know how they do it. i know the whole process is long and really tedious but it still seems like magic to me. especially when you watch a really good movie. i still marvel at the ability to make such a thing. they're so cool looking! how do you sit in an editing room for weeks and come up with something beautiful like that? its one of the reasons why i don't bother with behind the scenes stuff or making of things anymore. i don't want to know. it my religion. i like being wowed by miracles.

If you're a Scientologist, you're a victim of Scientology.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Thursday, January 30, 2025 10:19 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Famous people are treated a bit differently, or so I hear

After watching the "making of" bonus feature on the DVD of The Thing I can't see it now without being aware of the stagehands behind the false wall waving fake tentacles around or whatever. You have to excise this stuff from your memory!

Related: my wife, who is French, grew up loving many Arnie movies but dubbed into French. So the first time we watched one in English she was very confused as to why he sounds like that. Just wild to me that you could grow up with this guy's presence and NOT have the accent be an integral part of it.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, January 30, 2025 9:37 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

my wife is Mexican and she had trouble watching the Simpsons here because "the voices are all wrong!"

xxxpost I think editing was demystified for me pretty early. When I was a kid my friend's father would edit d-grade horror movies in a little corner of their dining room. Just sitting in front of the machine smoking cigarettes while his kids yelled about breakdancing in the living room.

Lol there was a part in the 2nd matrix movie during a high speed chase that was shot where i live in which a major freeway blocks a direct path of travel, but it is edited out … and I was totally pulled out of the illusion… like wtf … this may be the matrix, but that’s a bus and it cannot just teleport through the 880 freeway into the OPD parking lot.

Never had a problem with knowing how something was made turning me off of things, or even knowing about plot points in advance. It's mystifying to me how anyone can feel differently, but I know this is an extremely odd view to hold.

any specific examples, Daniel_Rf? I like to think I'm fairly well-versed in film but I'm not usually let down by A24. Insofar as modern films are concerned, and the amount they churn out I'd say the quality remains fairly high overall

Midsommar, Civil War, The Northman, The Lighthouse. They all feel like movies that you know exactly how they're gonna go when you start, do it in a pretty high quality way, but still mostly just remind me of their sources of inspiration.

Yes looking at how it's made is magic in and of itself for me.

i used to watch making-of stuff. i did actually watch some of the Mad God behind the scenes videos on youtube. but now i just want to watch the thing and be wowed. its nice.

same with music. or any art.