HI All,
Since I started this thread, the collection has changed a bit. My initial goal was all the "Best Movie" award winners from 1955 to present. Well, for reasons not clear to me, I expanded the collection to 1950. It is now complete. There certainly are a lot of great movies included. I like some better than others. Most of these I have seen before which takes some of the gamble out of the situation.
I am not a movie historian. That's not my purpose. I just like good movies. I have been tempted to collect Award winners all the way back to the beginning. This would be the path of the avid collector. I already have a number of early movies (pre-1950) that I like a lot but were not necessarily Academy winners such as early Hitchcock, Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers, King Kong, Casablanca, etc. These are just movies that I enjoy. Some were also Academy winners (Gone With The Wind and Casablanca are examples).
What argues against collecting all the way back to the beginning of the Academy awards is as we go further back in time the weaker, on average, the movies seem to get. I don't want to collect just for the sake of collecting.
So, I don't know what the next step will be. I'm thinking that the most logical move would be to collect all the Best Picture Nominee's from 1950 to present. I already have many of them, maybe 25%. There is no question that often the nominees were stronger than the eventual winner. Of course, finding sufficient storage space is an issue.
Or, perhaps, I should get off the American Academy bandwagon and move to foreign movies where I am a novice.
So, what do you think I should do. I'd like to hear your ideas.
Thanks, Sparky
Quite interesting sir.
There are many kinds of movie 'buffs' (cinephiles). ...And movie collectors.
World Cinema history, from the very first silent films, is full of gems. And from them you can reconstruct the main social aspects of all the world's philosophies, human's psychologies, laws and principles.
Because movie directors are visionaries and creators and observators and communicators, they are usually good at transmitting the messages they felt during their lifetime (the important directors anyway).
And it's good to explore French cinema (from France), Italian cinema, German cinema, Spanish cinema, Mexican cinema, Canadian cinema, American cinema, Russian cinema, Indian cinema, Japanese cinema, and all.
Academy Award films are American history, not World Cinema history.
A 'completist', a cineaste, a movie lover is someone with a vast vision, world vision.
World cinema is the eyes into the human behaviors since it was invented. ...And from each region, culture of the world.
Some movie collectors are concentrated on French cinema, and German cinema, or Italian cinema; others on American cinema, and Japanese cinema masters, and on and on.
You could go with all the best movie directors of the world, and you can go with the actors and actresses; all the best.
You can go with one continent, or another continent, or all the continents. ...All the various languages and cultures of our planet.
I know some people who have 20,000 and more films in their collections.
Some movie directors have some extensive collections too.
I dunno, each person has its own set of values regarding film's history. ...Just like music; Classical, Jazz, Blues, Rock, .,.,.
And they always upgrade to the latest technologies and best visual and sounding material.
There is much more money to be smartly invested in learning about humanity than money spent in the reproducers; if you know what I mean.
Move where your heart dictates you to go, and nowhere else. ...That's what I think.
{You won't be able to watch all the great cinema gems of the world, but your legacy might benefit your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, ..,.. and their friends, and the friends of their friends, and movie museums, and the world.}
Cheers,
Bob
