IdleRich
IdleRich
You know how everyone agrees Citizen Kate is great? Or at least everyone except perhaps four people or so. It is so universally acclaimed that it has become simply a shorthand for a masterpiece, magnum opus type thing.
"This film is a good genre piece but it's no Citizen Kane... " and so on. The same perhaps is true of The Bicycle Thieves and maybe a few other garlanded heroes of the cinematic world...
But we know all about those. What about the other end of the scale? Are there any films that are universally despised in the same way?
I think the problem might be that if a film is really bad and also a commercial failure then it might just be forgotten, it can't be remembered in the same way cos people don't seek it out to watch, quite the opposite in fact. You don't get retrospectives saying remember that bad film from twenty years ago? It's still really bad.
Of course there are stinkers that everyone did see but these become cult classics - Ed Wood or the like have this kitsch appeal which muddies the waters. I just want some suggestions for films that are bad - very bad in fact - and everyone knows it, but which have no cult appeal or any particular redeeming features. Films whose only unique element is that they are worse than virtually all other films and everyone knows it, and, as a result of this they could become a useful shorthand. A kind of redemption in the afterlife for a film that failed its makers and backers and actors but which nobly performs a service and becomes useful to some people at last as some kind of apology for being so shit.
So, suggestions please? Of course it's tempting to say Tree of Life but some freaks do like that one so it may not be the right choice. I would probably go for The New World but what about the rest of you? Any thoughts for other films? Perhaps even something not by Malick, I dunno, hit me, maybe there is something obvious I'm missing.
"This film is a good genre piece but it's no Citizen Kane... " and so on. The same perhaps is true of The Bicycle Thieves and maybe a few other garlanded heroes of the cinematic world...
But we know all about those. What about the other end of the scale? Are there any films that are universally despised in the same way?
I think the problem might be that if a film is really bad and also a commercial failure then it might just be forgotten, it can't be remembered in the same way cos people don't seek it out to watch, quite the opposite in fact. You don't get retrospectives saying remember that bad film from twenty years ago? It's still really bad.
Of course there are stinkers that everyone did see but these become cult classics - Ed Wood or the like have this kitsch appeal which muddies the waters. I just want some suggestions for films that are bad - very bad in fact - and everyone knows it, but which have no cult appeal or any particular redeeming features. Films whose only unique element is that they are worse than virtually all other films and everyone knows it, and, as a result of this they could become a useful shorthand. A kind of redemption in the afterlife for a film that failed its makers and backers and actors but which nobly performs a service and becomes useful to some people at last as some kind of apology for being so shit.
So, suggestions please? Of course it's tempting to say Tree of Life but some freaks do like that one so it may not be the right choice. I would probably go for The New World but what about the rest of you? Any thoughts for other films? Perhaps even something not by Malick, I dunno, hit me, maybe there is something obvious I'm missing.
