Yeah no One respects Older Cinema Any more & That's A Crying Same You Got too look back at the older things to see the newer things of Cinema and see That They are much both similar in nature and in cinema
The lack of diversity is why they don't appeal to newer generations. Why would anybody who isn't white look back at the oh o good times of the 1940's where it wasn't even allowed to cast leads who are of colour?
You guys will never know how much I value and respect your minds and opinions, and how life changing and educating your videos are. They're so in depth, and leave absolutely no question unanswered. You have beautifully philosophical minds and you just help so many people see life in as many layers as you do. Thank you truly, so much 💗💗💗
People nowadays are dying even sooner than their parents... Do you really think they have the time or the patience for all of these CLASSIC MOVIES??? 🤔
I'm 32, my brother's 17, and I've shown him literally hundreds of classic black and white films, and believe it or not, he's enjoyed LOTS of them. Kids just need to be exposed to them more.
I'm 25 and my sister is 10 and she absolutely dislikes all Disney princess classic and is into all the new ones like Rayponce, Frozen, Moana, Inside out, Tinker Bell series. I don't know it seems like little girls today don't really look up to Princes and Princesses stories like I was when I was their age. It doesn't sparkles their eyes anymore and they're more into a female following an adventure, they're waiting for the female character to do *important things* which never occurred to me back then. I was watching Sleeping beauty and my sister asked "Is she gonna stay dead until the end of the movie?" I was kinda embarrassed by the question because the answer was yes lol.
@@cherchehacknostale Well in that genre the newer female leads are progressive and active in their destinies, and not passive characters with little to say. So I get that. In fact, good for her! Maybe as she gets older she'll appreciate classic cinema such as the examples from this episode of The Take.
The less budget and technology, the more creative special effects are. It's truly amazing how inventive these old movies were with shot compositions and special effects.
My favourite thing about black and white cinema is how they could use different coloured makeup to change someone's entire countenance with a mere change of lights colour, transforming people into werewolves or witches, it's mind numbingly effective :) If I make a movie I want to do it in black and white just so I can play with the effect of different coloured light on different coloured makeup :)
@@Shindai I know right!! Like the witch scene from Sh! The octopus. That looks amazing and they did it all with makeup and lights! I doubt modern cinematic directors would ever come up with creative effects like that. Imagine having to think of special creative ways to shoot scenes instead of just “fixing it in post”. Old films had so much love and creativity put into them!!
Dude! This was how I was introduced to classic cinema and short form comedies from Three Stooges, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy as well! I used to spend summers with my grandpa by the ocean and TCM was one of the only channels besides Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network I discovered on my own that I enjoyed. Spent literal hours some days watching whatever the programming had to offer. I owe TCM a huge debt of gratitude and I wish it was easier to use. It seems the streaming channel doesn’t work without a cable or satellite subscription 😕
Film literacy is so important…….. Maybe not “solving world hunger” important or such, but there’s a shallow way movies are made today that make people get used to performances focusing on realism, scenes being fast paced, and the camera using close ups as a way to que the audience when they should feel, that people become emotionally stinted in their own less stimulated environment, and less open to the wider range of empathetic emotions in their own lives. Classic movies and the many many artistic ways they were expressed heals the soul, and helps us grow in our emotional and empathetical maturity, and be less afraid of that maturity.
@@cursed3artemis True, true. Maybe I should try to elaborate a bit more, just to distinguish media and film. Because film isn't just about the story, the dialogue, or the themes. It isn't just about information as media would be in most aspects. Story and dialogue are devices that engage our relationship and understanding of how we experience the cinema artform. We're watching a crafting of the story as much as the story of the film, and that craftsmanship of the editing and lighting and staging, etc, also communicates a perceived emotional view of the world. Not just the story. Because a story can be told in many different ways depending on the director, and the year those films were made. Just the very year a film was made communicates with us the emotions and ideas of the time, even if its story takes place in the past or distant future.
When I was 19, I transferred to an out of state university, and it left me without a social outlet. This was in the year 2000, so no social media. However, I watched a lot of movies at this time to decompress during this time. I saw Casablanca, Rocky horror picture show, Blue lagoon, Bus Stop, The Graduate & many more iconic films. Today's technology often makes me feel like it's shortened my attention span, as well as limiting my availability to discover music or films from the past to love.
Yep, that's right my friend! 👍 And the SADDEST part of all, is that NOBODY likes to hear the TRUTH... Might take 'em like around 20-30 years before they could even figure that out, but they WILL find out eventually. The HARD way! By then, they'll be all wondering WTF happened to their LIFE? Where the hell did it go? 🤔🤨😳🙄😞💀
We shouldn’t erase history just because we personally might not like it. Without it, we don’t learn from the past’s mistakes learn from, gain from their wisdom and won’t be able to fully appreciate the progress we made.
I don't agree with you. Do you need to feel and see what a punch do to your face to know it will most likely hurt ? No. We don't need to see racist, misogynistic and homophobic movies to know we shouldn't do the same.
@@cherchehacknostale i do agree with you. these movies should definitely be talked about, but there isnt a need to watch them if they are offensive. to watch is to view for pleasure or enjoyment or learning. if you know a movie comes from an era where offensive things are okay, what is the need to watch if thats all you'll get from it, that these things are offensive. its just like confederate statues. they dont need to be there to know they are bad. just like you dont need to watch these movies to know they are offensive. you can put them in a learning environment amd teach about it rather than show the offensiveness or else people will think its for entertainment or a celebration of these people.
@@cherchehacknostale Some people DO need to see these things first hand to fully understand how harmful they are. Believe it or not, not everyone learns the same way, and it’s ableist to try to shame others for it. I’ve had the misfortune of meeting racists, sexists and homophobes who truly believe they are doing nothing wrong. Movies reflect the times they are made in, for better and for worse. You can still enjoy a piece of media while still being critical of it. A difference between now and the time period the movies mentioned in the video is that awareness for various social issues are MUCH higher now than then. We see that through our media.
@@cherchehacknostale the less obviously these views are observed, the more likely people are to become desensitized to these issues. For some seeing really id believing - the same impact just isn’t felt by anecdotal conversations or lessons for some. They need to observe the extent that past beliefs shaped peoples lives and perceptions to truly understand the nuance, depth, and horror of certain issues. This is where critical thinking comes into play with film - one needs to be able to dissect the film from their own standpoint, and promote a nuanced discussion of how life used to be, where we are now, and what we still need to do to grow. This can be achieved by engaging with such media, rather than dismissing it. Those who are not fully aware/exposed to the past are much more likely to repeat it.
To everyone complaining that the classics have no POC representation: totally right, but you can/should always watch old Hollywood movies with a critical perspective. Learn from their artistic skills, cinematic language, but also from their mistakes.
Its seriously as simple as understanding they were made in a different era with a whole different line of thinking and what we deem bad, inappropriate, racist, sexist and anything phobic was basically seen as normal back then. I'm sure future generations will have the same thoughts about our current standards and norms especially during Covid years down the line. Its part in parcell of human nature and evolution. We tend to criticise and place the past under a microscope way too much without putting much thought into what the norms were in those days and how they differed significantly from the norms of the further past before that era.
Exactly. I just watched It's a Wonderful Life last night. The beautiful woman always has paper white skin, big light eyes, light hair, & has that perfect shoulder to hip ratio hourglass shape. Women are constantly grabbed by the arm or the waist when unprovoked. Men giving kisses to women without consent. Even if it's just on the head. Some strange old man kisses me on the head & he'll get a goddamn earful. The mammy character is horribly racist. It is certainly a product of its time. But also, it's a movie about the struggles of the working class. How capitalist hogs will buy up every business and home & then extort the community & rob them of any wealth they once had while making sure they sure as hell can't gain anymore wealth either. People are living in slums, a child dies of the flu and his father becomes a drunk & almost poisons another child. It shows how financial stress can turn a bright, happy young person into a miserable violent angry drunk. Even the line about it being difficult for a working man to save $5000 is still massively true today. I sure as hell don't have anywhere close to $5k at one time and even if I did it'd be going to my huge bills & debt. It shows how, even in your darkest of days, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Was It's a Wonderful Life horribly backwards in many ways? HELL YES. Was it also way the fuck ahead of its time on other issues? Yes! None of that means I think every single person should like that movie. Mammy doesn't trigger me bc I'm not black. Women being touched doesn't trigger me bc it hasn't happened to me much. It pisses me off that those were once acceptable things to do/think. But I could see being a female victim of assault or being PoC or maybe even just being queer (considering the heteronormativity) making it hard to watch movies like this. It's all about your perspective. If watching movies like this makes you uncomfortable, turn it off and watch something that does make you happy bc you deserve to be happy!
@kotoba great point, and to add, many countries have their own canon of classic movies - some countries to check out - Iran, India, south America, Egypt etc.
Back in 2010, a dear friend of mine posted a list of her favorite Oscar winning films, none which I had never seen or known about. I decided to change that and watched as many classic films as possible and became fascinated by them and chronicled all the films I had watched and what I loved and didn't like about them. It made me appreciate how classic stories were told in their limited medium and how many of them are literal works of art. Plus I found my favorite movie of a time; "Singin' in the Rain". To me it's a perfect film that combines color, spectacle, humor, heart, romance, and even sarcasm and cynicism. It's one of those movies that will never be made again. The CLOSEST film I feel came to achieving "Singin' in the Rain" balance was "La La Land".
Yeah, I just saw 'Singing in the Rain' a few days ago. I've watched a bunch of movies from the 50s or earlier, but very few musicals from that era (the only other musicals I've really enjoyed, are 70s/80s stuff like 'Little Shop of Horrors', 'Blues Bros' and 'Rocky Horror'). But 'Singin In The Rain' really surprised me- Way more accessable, and entertaining than I was expecting, as someone who's been put off by old musicals, before.
I used to live next door to a pair of 20 year olds who said they don't watch movies made before 2000, and I was dumbfounded. Like, they don't just happen to favour more recent movies, they specifically don't watch movies from before 2000. They're missing out on some of the best movies ever made.
Disagree about La La Land -- I strongly disliked that movie and its narcissistic characters -- but YAY for Singin' in the Rain! What an awesome discovery to have made. It's one of the funniest, most joyous movies in existence, and a lot less "dated" than people might suspect. The humor snaps, and the performances (especially Jean Hagen's) are spot on.
The director of Passing shared in an interview that she fought for years to have the movie be in Black n White so many folks resisted her vision . Many folks wanted to make the movie 🎥 but wanted it in color . Glad she stuck to her vision and did the film she wanted to see
Yes, PLEASE!!! Classic cinema needs a larger presence today! Many of the films released today are formed and influenced by these older films from a bygone era, and discovering these classics actually brings us to appreciate the newer films that build upon the past.
I would a 100% subscribe to a streaming service that only has the classics. I've always loved classical movies but as I grew older and met new people I realized that many people my age don't like and don't understand classical movies because they are not as exposed to them as I am. When I was little all we did was watch old black and white movies.
Classic films evoke a sense of comfort and nostalgia from our childhoods, and their timeless messages hold up to this very day, much like "It's a Wonderful Life".
People nowadays are dying even sooner than their parents... Do you really think they have the time or the patience for all of these CLASSIC MOVIES??? 🤔
A movie that is a classic and timeless is “The Best Years of our Lives “ with themes of PTSD, divorce, infidelity, unemployment and true love. Plus there is All About Eve which has not held up quite as well but is a fantastic film.
I've only seen it once, but what I got from All About Eve is that unless women see through the trap that there's always someone coming up behind you trying to take your spot, the fighting between us will prevent our being able to help each other and make the art that we love.
Suggestion: Since you guys seem to enjoy Brando’s work why wouldn’t you make a video on how he changed acting? Or how he affected the way people defined masculinity in the 50s? That would be really interesting and I don’t think anyone has done it on TH-cam.
I'm currently studying for a first degree in cinema and media, and spending my first course hearing about all the work put into these movies and the strong meanings behind them was pretty mind-opening. Not every movie was perfect and not every message was something to admire (Birth of A Nation is a good example), but we can learn from them and preserve what they meant to those directors and the influence it brought onto cinema in general.
Just saw Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the first time recently and was amazed how applicable it was to todays political issues, plus the writing was 👌
That last 30 minutes is phemomenal and in my book easily Jimmy Stewart's best performance of his entire career. Its just so physical and also really dangerous when you learn that he had to use Mercury pills which we now know are deadly to the human body to get his voice to sound so dry and exhausted.
Mr. Smith is a great movie! I discovered the lovely actress Jean Arthur through this classic and, of course, the performances from everyone else were terrific too.
@@christopherborroughs8526 Claude Rains gives one of my favorite supporting performances ever, his ever-increasing disappointment in his own choices and genuine care for Jeff is heartbreaking.
I would love to see a dissection of the Before trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight) for Valentine's day; the film depicts different versions of love and how it transforms as time progresses. Plus, it has some of the best simplistic, character driven dialogue
I am in my thirties and an emerging filmmaker who absolutely loves classic films from Hollywood's Golden Age. Some of my favorites are in black and white including "His Girl Friday", "Casablanca", "All About Eve" and "Some Like It Hot". I also love old comedic films by the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin. I began watching Chaplin films on VHS tapes as a kid so thank you to my parents for making that available. I get so much enjoyment from these old films and constantly go back to them. I can't say the same about the majority of new releases. I understand very well the problem you're talking about in this video because when I took a filmmaking course last year they asked us to write about our favorite classic movies. It disappointed me that most of my classmates only mentioned "old" movies from the 80s and 90s...sometimes "The Wizard of Oz" but that was it. I think they're missing out...and I didn't get to have the conversations about film that I was hoping to have. :/ I am Hispanic/Latina so I understand the representation issues but I still think classic films have so much value both for entertainment and educational purposes.
I acknowledge that taste is subjective, but I find it really hard to imagine anyone not finding movies like Casablanca or A Matter of Life and Death engaging. Black and white means nothing when you care about what's happening.
Just recently saw Some Like It Hot and was surprised at how funny that shit still was. Also interesting to see what was considered "normal" during past eras.
I love that movie. That movie was ahead of its time. In fact, if you check out more of Billy Wilder's work, you will see that the messages in some of his other films still hold relevance. Jack Lemmon is one of my favorite actors from that era.
@@Chandasouk You must watch Jack Lemmon in The Apartment! Billy Wilder also wrote the screenplay for that film and it also starred a very young Shirley MacLaine. Its message about boundaries and standing your ground still holds true today
Although The Wizard of Oz has always been a favorite of mine from childhood (older millennial here), it took me until a film class in high school in my mid teens for me to truly appreciate black and white films and now I count movies like The Thin Man, Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace and His Girl Friday (among others) as favorite films too.
Spielberg nailed it. His adaptation of West Side Story was mind-blowing. Beautiful cinematography and excellent execution of the dance and musical numbers, just like in the 50s but with a modern and new touch to it. The script was also definitely more realistic and immersive. A true experience on the big screen. I also loved Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and the movie Passing for bringing back the black and white aesthetic, absolutely gorgeous. 2021 was truly a good year for cinema.
Is the remake that good? I’ll watch it for the dance numbers but I have never been a West Side Story fan (I don’t care for Romeo and Juliet at all, and the songs don’t outshine the overall story for me)
@@KatieLHall-fy1hw in my opinion. They each do certain things better. I can't say it's superior to the original as a whole, but it is certainly not a carbon copy. Both have their merit.
i started going to the british film institute in london (which only charges £3 if youre under 25) to watch a lot of movies from the 1950's etc. It feels much easier to engage with these movies if you watch them how they were designed to be watched- with an audience.
London is a great place for a classic film fan! As well as the BFI, check out the ICA, the Prince Charles Cinema near Liecester Square, and the Cinema Museum in Kennington - all have regular screenings of films from across the eras.
It's not until you start watching lots of classic films that you realise just how often modern film makers lift ideas from them. It happens all. The. Time! Alfred Hitchcock, Joseph von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, Busby Berkley - I spot homages to their works constantly. And I love it, as it means film makers are still enjoying and learning from them, and reconising that they still have value today.
I watched a few classic films recently such as It's A Wonderful Life (1946), Miracle On 34th Street (1947), We're No Angels (1955) and just tonight I watched The Mark Of Zorro (1920)
The fact that this topic even needs a video dedicated to it is concerning! “They don’t make films like they used to” and modern Hollywood has suffered for it. Films with heart and character now relegated to the background for big budget franchises. Worst thing is that I cannot see it changing any time soon
I'm not generally a critic of modernity or technological progress, but I agree that today's blockbuster films are very shallow intellectually and emotionally. Many franchise films rely way too much on how impressive the CGI is, but the story is so forgettable most of the time... Not all the time of course, but in general.
@@lisaw150 That's what sells, both domestically and internationally (which is now hugely important to studios and distributors, as international markets such as China and the rest of Asia, can bring in far more profit to them than the U.S.). People will pay, and pay at theaters, to see them. And then later pay to see it again online. And buy the merchandise for themselves or their kids. Very, very profitable stuff. In the 90s, when people still had to pay to go to theaters, or else pay for video rentals, the market became more diverse and a lot of independent American films came out in that time. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Hal Hartley, Richard Linklater, Gus Van Sant, Whit Stillman, Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson and more, all came out of the 90s and 2000s working on small, independent films. So much more indie cinema came out in those times, as there was more funding available to them, because some of those films made back money, in some cases making huge returns. When online piracy and file sharing, and free movies became widely available in the 2000s, profits plummeted for many filmmakers. And what happens? Financing dries up. Indies struggle. And studios want to only back bigger projects that they believe to have obvious money making potential. Now more than ever, they rely on big budget action films and Marvel or DC Comics films, since they can be sold worldwide (especially China) and are sure bets. Studios can no longer be sure of making money on other types of films. Those films are harder to sell abroad (especially China and Asia). That's why countries which provide strong support to their own home industries, such as France, Australia, and South Korea, have produced a lot of successful and acclaimed films that have found recognition outside their own countries. For example, South Korea had a theater quota system, which favored Korean films, helping to push the industry by giving them a home market. Same goes for France. Australia had state and national government organizations which provided funding, as well as theater quotas, and national and state film and drama schools to provide training and nurture talent.
@@SY-ok2dq True. Those programmes really help preserve diversity and quality. Then again, I'm a European snob, I guess. I like the occasional Marvel-esque action film, but it would be a shame if that was all there is. I think that's what Scorsese was getting at too: those films kill genre diversity.
@@lisaw150 That's the market economy for you. Film making, and film distribution, are very expensive processes. And in a capitalist system, companies driven by profits and maximum returns with lower risks, are going to prefer films that are more likely to be sure bets. Hence we see the domination of these action blockbusters (which export well to other more lucrative markets like China), especially ones based on "name" franchises like Marvel or DC comics. These films are not the reason for this lack of diversity. They're not killing diversity. Rather, they are the product of current market forces and corporate players in the market. Theater attendance has been going down for decades. In addition, the replacement of the secondary video/DVD rental market with streaming and online digital services has reduced that source of profits. As I mentioned before, it's only through the intervention and support (financial, infrastructure, legal requirements etc.) of the governments of some countries that those countries have maintained and nurtured their local filmmaking industry and been able to find success beyond their borders. This has brought cultural influence and recognition to these countries which they would have less of, without the success of their films. France, Australia, and South Korea have had much greater success compared to neighboring countries of similar population size and wealth. If they just relied upon the corporate sector and capitalist market forces, these countries would be in a very different position today. Hence that's why from a cultural standpoint it is beneficial for a country to spend state money to fund infrastructure for local film making, even though it isn't profitable right away.
Classic Films are wonderful. It is A wonderful Life and Casblanca are some of my favorites. Please don't lump all Millennials together or feed into the media stereotype. I am considered a Millennial and I'm almost 40. I was raised by Boomer parents that showed me the classics. The "young kids" are now Generation Z.
even then older gen Z (1997-2002/3) often have knowledge of old school media, whether implicit or explicit. It's later Gen Z (2004-2009), possibly Gen Alpha (2010-present), that are less knowledgeable, likely because of having no access or desire to see the classics.
It's Citizen Kane and Humphrey Bogard's work for me, particularly In A Lonely Place and Maltese Falcon. The amount of effort Orson Welles put into his debut movie was insanely detailed, and pay in mind he made it when he was TWENTY FIVE. That's one hell of a flex.
I love how this video almost feels like a love letter to classic movies One of my favourite movies of all time is Arsenic and Old Lace; when I took a pop culture class back in college we had an assignment to bring in a clip of a movie and discuss what the scene was about and how the director and actors had executed it. I remember being the only person out of the maybe 14 person class to have a black and white movie and that at first they didn't seem to keen on it. I played the scene I was showing and by the end the entire class was roaring with laughter and several came up to me afterwards to ask about the name of the movie again so they could watch it themselves. I wish it was easier to watch some of them online, I miss when the local channels would play classic movies late at night, I found so many odd and unknown to me gems that way.
As a Millenial, I feel extremely lucky that my grandma introduced me to classic cinema at a young age with the Laurel and Hardy and Little Rascals shorts (my dad also happened to have a copy of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in his study). I was immediately hooked and my love for them grew from there, with the help of TCM and film classes in high school and college. Now I'm an aspiring filmmaker myself and I always look forward to checking out new films that I haven't heard about before or discovering them by accident (that's how I discovered my favorite horror film of all time, The Uninvited (1947) for example.) I also want to make those kinds of films as well. Classic Cinema is full of surprises and deep insights, and I feel more well rounded as a person because of it.
Very well said and I couldn’t agree more! My grandmother had 1 VHS of The Sandlot, and it was her only “new” kids movie when I was growing up. But, she had a ton of shorts from The Little Rascals, and my grandfather was a huge fan of old westerns; between them and the TCM channel, we watched a lot of black and white film as kids. I’m very grateful for it! Though some of them are a little shocking to my husband, who never watched old movies growing up…I’ll never forget the look on his face when I explained the plot to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 😅
I love old films! Do you have any recommendations? I’ve seen most of the most popular and culturally significant ones and some more obscure ones. I’d love some more ideas.
@@booksboundnoveljourneys1122 Sure thing! Along with The Uninvited (1944), I recommend The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, both the 1940 and 1924 silent version of The Sea Hawk, Both the 1940 and the silent 1920 version of The Mark of Zorro, Rio Bravo, The Searchers, The Thin Man, Bringing Up Baby, To Catch a Thief, the 1939 version of The Four Feathers, A Matter of Life and Death, Chaplin's The Kid and Gold Rush, Keaton's The General and Sherlock Jr., The Little Rascals/Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Who Done It?, The Cat and The Canary (the 1927 version), The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Secret Weapon, and The Scarlet Claw starring Basil Rathbone, The Music Man, Forbidden Planet, The Thing From Another World, and the 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
My mom got Netflix back when it was 3 DVDs at a time in the mail and almost everything she got was a classic/black and white film. I loved so many of them, particularly It Happened One Night. It’s like watching Shakespeare - you just need to sit in it and gradually you become more fluent in the vernacular and visual storytelling.
I was watching Singing In the Rain for the umpteenth time with my family over Christmas and uttered that phrase that proves you're getting old that they do not make films like this anymore. I was specifically talking about all the great dance routines in that film.
This is why I love HBO Max. They have a large catalogue of TCM/Criterion titles right alongside DC titles for example. This is what I loved about your trope videos from a while back, how you would bring the past history of something like a femme fatale into relationship with the present. Your suggestions here are good, but I also think this channel could take more responsibility in what you're saying. A lot of videos recently have been based on the latest show-of-the-moment, like Clickbait for example. I like these videos and what they have to say about culture, but I think they could be richer when engaging the past more. I have no issue with 3 or whatever Squid Game videos, but maybe one of them more rigorously looks at Battle Royale, a criminally unknown (though admittedly not that old) movie that more people should see. Just something to think about maybe. As always, i love what you guys put out and usually leave enriched. You made 2021 a lot better, and here's to 2022!
FYI on a small detail: I'm in my early 30s. Been wanting to explore older films, even black and white films that have no sound but as stated in the video, streaming services only focus on the more recent & brand new films. I recently watched It's A Wonderful Life for Christmas with my Mom and I loved it though I wish it weren't in color. I also enjoyed Gone With The Wind when I was 15 though I likely wouldn't have seen it if it weren't for my Grandmother who had the film. I find I like watching films my parents and grandparents watched when they were kids, teenagers or young adults. As my grandparents are either deceased or out of state I like to watch the movies of their time to feel connected to them. I think I'll start collecting such movies.
Well done on deciding to explore the classics further! I don't know whereabouts you are, but Mubi, The Criterion Channel, the BFI player, and even Amazon Prime all have older movies in their library (you can always use a VPN if not all of these are available in your country). There's lots of blogs/Twitter accounts/etc out there focusing on particular eras/genres of classic cinema if you want to dig deep past the obvious choices. Have fun!
If you have cable TV, TCM is a wonderful place to start your classic movie journey. During their evening showings, the host will provide some background information on the film both at the beginning and at the end. Often, they will highlight a theme and curate films to said theme. My personal favorite is during the month of August, Summer Under the Stars, where they highlight one star each day.
I watched 'it's a wonderful life' in black and white. It's true you don't remember it being black and white. You only keep the emotions and the story with you. I couldn't even remember the title but could tell the story.
Growing up in the 80s, I used to watch all my Chaplins, Bogarts or Fred Astaires simply on TV after 11pm. Today the oldest movie they show on TV is Diehard, not even French Connection !
TCM has been my escape from reality since covid after hardwork and school I need a classical movie black and white or just any classic movie at the end of the day.
I feel like the marvel critique is a little unfair and gets to the heart of the issue here. That is: what film “ought” to be. Just because there is an ability for film to tell stories about the human experience and feelings without advanced technology doesnt mean that it “ought” to be that way. Some people want to go on those rides, some people just wanna see machines fight and heroes banter, and they are able to do that through film. I think the success of marvel shows that film is all that (about the classics) AND more. It’s marvel AND Casablanca. Do we have to critique other forms of film to lift up our personal favorites? I don’t think so, I think they’re all valid because film is just that amazing. Side note: This old school nostalgia conversation is reminiscent of the music industry’s analog vs digital conversation as well. This seems to be crossing all entertainment forms, and I think being able to let go of a linear view of the progression of art and instead embrace a blossoming, expansive, “yes and” approach is more conducive to the conversation. Because ultimately where we are now includes ALL of it, the past isn’t gone, it’s there AND there are new things having their moment. I’m glad that you guys are doing the work of keeping the past in the limelight because moving forward it’s gonna be our love and passion for our favorites that carries the torch and builds the future.
Also, MCU has to be doing something right, otherwise pople wouldn't cry their eyes out in the cinema... And you don't cry in public because they stopped animating Iron Man's suit or Scarlett Johansson jumped off a green screen rock onto a matterace. Not to mention recenet accolades for WandaVision, which would have been a simple story about overwhelming grief if it wasn't for flying robots and witches. But what's wrong with those things? 3 years after Endgame people are not analysing CGI, but character development that lead us to that ending...
I am doing this "personal challenge" thing. Every time I want to see an episode from a TV show, I watch a "classic" movie, or an important movie that I never watched in their time (It's amazing how many gaps I have in my movie education). Sometimes it's an old movie (I loved Casablanca), but sometimes is just a blockbuster movie that I missed, like The Matrix. I've really had an excellent time, I couldn't recommend this exercise enough!!!
This may be your finest Take. I love old movies!!! Certainly any film student or person serious about the craft should have a significant education in those who came before them.
First of all, i hate the misconception that one genre of movies is killing the other. That you can't love Marvel movies and be a Kubrick's fan as well. I think comes down to generation and the lack of understanding of a period piece. I feel in love for classics when i was 16, spend my whole high school and college, watching the full filmography of directors and actors i fell in love. Even influenced my parents to watch some with me, since they haven't watch them in ages. In this day and age, people lack the patience to understand and appreciate something old, because they get too caught up on the stuff that haven't aged well. Just look what happened to Gone with the Wild. Breaks my heart to see that in the age of streaming, where the accessibility of old movies are so much easier, the interest in almost none. But then again, even movies from the 2000 don't have that much appeal anymore.
I'm going to disagree slightly with you on those first two sentences. You are correct it is not mutually exclusive to enjoy the new Spider-Man movie and Dr. Strangelove. I think the problem lies in if that is the majority of movies people see are the comic book movies, and the studios are only going to give us what we say with our dollar we want. It seems as though people are saying with their dollar "I want something I'm familiar with", not just comic movies but look at the Matrix, Star Wars, Fast & Furious. Again, I enjoy those film series by and large, but what I enjoy the most about movies is seeing a story I never heard before. Tell me about an Irish-Italian gangster's life of crime from the 50s - the 80s, I'd like to hear about how 12 strangers reached a verdict on a boy's murder trial, or how racial tensions between Koreans, Black people, Italians, and Puerto Ricans escalated on a hot day in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Storytelling is what makes it special, not the same story and characters told for the 6th time.
Talking about recommendations of black and white films, everyone who loves spooky films or even mysteries should watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It’s an hour long and with one of the best shots I’ve ever seen. Yes, it is silent, but everything is so weird and crooked that it became my favorite Halloween movie of all time
By this same logic: can you guys please review more classic films? For every gen Z/millenial hot show that gets views, you could drive engagement to classics by posting your take on them.
My mom’s a Baby Boomer, so I watched everything from TCM. And I have 8 VHS. Like Cocteau’s La Belle Et Bette, Gigi, The Searchers, Sabrina, The Hunchback, It’s a wonderful life, Psycho and Mildred Pierce
To Black folks, "classic Hollywood" is stained by Jim Crow. The themes and stories are specific to white America of the past yes, but we're also forced to reconcile with the fact that Black writers actors, and directors were violently excluded. 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Guess Who's coming to Dinner' are both presented endearingly, (and even earned Academy Awards for Black performers) but they also stir up resentment and sadness for the artists and stories that we know we didnt get to see.
I will forever be grateful that my mom introduced me to black and white movies and shows while I was a young child emphasizing their importance. I enjoyed movies by Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Bros, Laurel & Hardy, and shows like the Twilight Zone, Little Rascals, and the Three Stooges. In high school I really devoured as many classic movies as I could. One that really stood out to me and made me so uncomfortable was "Niagra". To this day I love how it make me feel uncomfortable. I purposefully go out of my way to find older movies to watch, especially when I really want to "feel" something.
I think it might be part of my Asperger's hyper focus, but I really love classics of anything. Classic books, classic music, classic architecture, classic monuments, classic stories, and classic movies. But, I can't really pin-point where it comes from. My Dad has shared some of his favourite music with me, and he likes books and movies, but nowhere near as much as I do. My Mom doesn't have the mental energy for hobbies. Growing up, I watched a good deal of classic Danish movies with my family, including some black and white ones. Then when I was a teenagers, I must have watched a thousand top tens here on TH-cam and felt inclined to watch the classic movies mentioned. At university, I joined a film club and had many people to gush about cinema with. I am 26 now and still feel such a connection to the world when I indulge in the classics. They put so much of the world into perspective for me, which probably helps me navigate my disorder 😊 Side note: Danish Netflix has ramped up there actual classics selections with many titles from as early as the 1930s, though these are mainly British, French, and Italian movies, while also having a lot of Danish, Swedish, Spanish Polish, Turkish, Nigerian, and so on, from the past 20 years. I was very glad to discover that ☺
I know this is a year later, but I'm Asperger too and I feel the same as you, I'm 18 and I LOVE ANYTHING CLASSIC TOO, from movies to music, literature, architecture, etc... Even in my family they say I'm kind of old soul, they are surprised by the tremendous degree of culture that I have (thanks to the internet), once my Great Aunt (who is now in Mexico with my Great Uncle, unfortunately she can't walk right now) was surprised about how I knew about classic movie stars like John Wayne, Gary Cooper or Jimmy Stewart (one of my favorites) and even that I knew that Ronald Reagan was an actor (the fact that he was president of the USA really overshadowed his acting career), it also helps that my Great Uncle likes westerns. Whenever I came to their house, I used to watch classic movies on TCM or Fox Classics, I love a lot of older things and it also helped me to disconnect from current reality and even programming, I'm not saying that I don't love a lot of new or modern things, although today's popular music leaves a lot to be desired in my favor. Greetings from Venezuela, I wish I could go to US or Europe or any other part of the world someday, I hope that my International Studies career at the university will allow me those opportunities, apart from the fact that it helps me a lot with languages.
There's some amazing, old b&w movies out there- 1st-gen gangster movie like the Jimmy Cagney era; the 1932 'Scarface', 'Angels With Dirty Faces', 'The Public Enemy', ''The Roaring 20s', 'White Heat'', up to 40s/50s crime/Noir stuff like 'The Big Sleep' 'The Man With The Golden Arm' and Kubrick's 'The Killing', 'Dr Strangelove' 'Lolita; and 'Paths of Glory'. Early Marx Bros are legit some of the funniest movies ever made- 'Duck Soup', 'Horse Feathers', 'Animal Crackers', 'A Day At the Races', 'Night At the Opera'. Westerns like 'High Noon' and 'The Searchers'. The 50s originals of sci-fi classics like 'The Fly' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. And 'Wizard of Oz' isn't all black and white, but it's a 10/10 movie from that era. There's great movies from every era, but theres something magical about that 20s to 50s era, that few later films can re-capture.
As a classic film enthusiast I loved this video. It is a shame that the old are renegaded as obsolete. When eventually even our own modern movies will be considered as obsolete. You should make more videos like these.
I accidentally became an old movie fanatic TH-cam mainly but also movie reviewing apps that get me excited and then I hunt for old movies in thrift stores and stuff. There’s just something so powerful about old black and white flicks
I have been doing that too. I also like to request classic movies at my library if they're not available to stream. You'd be surprised how very little classic movies there are in the shelves of different movie genres. My local record store has there own little section for classic movies. I was able to get West Side Story
I'm really glad you made the point that "old" does not automatically equal "classic". I've always found the latter term annoyingly ambiguous and tend to avoid using it, but the idea that a real classic is something that has withstood the test of time and still carries meaningful messages for the present is a good way of looking at things. Although most movies considered classics have never really appealed to me, it was never about them being black and white or lacking special effects (those are just aesthetics). In most cases I can recall, the plots, themes, and even characters never really expressed experiences that were relevant to my life. Even if the characters are of similar age and come from relatively similar backgrounds, society has changed so much in the decades since that such experiences are no longer the norm. To be fair, most high-octane blockbusters don't reflect my experiences either, but they do it in such an obvious/over-the-top way that it's easier to see them as just great drama in their own right, not necessarily as something that's trying to capture real human experience.
Themes like falling in love, heartbreak, living with poverty, rebelling against societal pressures, etc are universal, no matter what era you're living in. Maybe you've just picked the wrong classic movies?
I'm 22 and I'm from middle east, I started watching classic movies (from my own country, Hollywood, Italy etc) when I was about 15 and have been a fan of classics ever since ❤ I'm sure these movies will always have their fans, I know lots of young people who are obsessed with classic movies, music and looks
I feel lucky that my family introduced me to classic movies. Court Jester is still my favourite film of all time, and all because my great aunt recorded it once in German. From there, I watched every Danny Kaye movie, ten years ago they were all on TH-cam, full length, with no ads. Every year on christmas day, we watch the Rex Harrison version of Doctor Doolittle. It's the little traditions and details that make life joyful.
The classics need not mean the embarrassingly sexist or racist stuff. There are plenty of overlooked classics that had interesting women and people of color, such as "Stormy Weather" (excluding one inexplicable bit with blackface) or "The Curse of Quon Gwon: When The Far East Mingles With the West."
Your premise doesn’t support your conclusion bc even you acknowledged that Stormy Weather is problematic (too, for its stereotypical portrayal of AA people as happy slum dwellers). Yet the performances are beautiful and it has entertainment and historical value.
Yeah... And there's a LOT of surprises when you go back pre-Hays' code. A lot of those films were a lot more racy and unconventional than people think. And really, a lot you have to think of in terms of their era. The declaration, "I'm a MAN!" and the accepting, smiling reply, "Well, nobody's perfect," in *Some Like it Hot* would be fairly tame today... but in the time it was made a man could be arrested for being in a gay relationship. They were pushing the envelope. Lillies of the Field is a nice little movie about a man who ends up being boondoggled into helping a bunch of German nuns build a chapel when he stops for water on a drive through New Mexico. But consider the context of the time and you realize that Sidney Poitier is a man of color in a leading role of a mixed-race cast, and his character is just as human as anyone else... and that this is 1963 in the midst of the Civil Right movement.
But, is it a classic if it is unknown to the large public? is it not a movie with the potential to become one as more people watch it? Or a movie that should be one?
One idea that has always bothered me is the notion that something isn't "real" if it is not popular. That is a message the mass media has hammered into our heads, and it's just not true. We all didn't grow up having identical experiences, and if anything that was even more true in the past. But we have been conditioned to think that if "nobody" saw something happen, then it didn't happen. I am an outspoken proponent of encouraging all people to speak of their experiences, no matter how inconsequential, as important to them personally, and I think this applies especially to movies and television. There have been many "forgettable" entertainments I've seen that I have found UNforgettable. Maybe it's a form of cherry-picking, but I think that if something happens, it happens, and it is just as significant as any other occurrence.
my cousin loves classic movies and old hollywood and she's about 15 years older than me and would babysit me and we watched so many old movies together. classics are kinda comfort movies to me, they are often so magical and have such a theatrical flair that it takes you out of the real world for a bit. i'm also a cinephile and love the history of old movies and seeing how they inspired current filmmakers, i know they're not for everyone but i definitely will be showing my future kids or nieces or nephews so many classic films.
I absolutely fell deeply in love with classic cinema a few years back. Doing so made me more aware of filmmaking itself and also the beauty of writing. I have a huge dvd collection because I became obsessed with wanting to ensure I never missed a chance to see them. I’m 27 and I love more classic films and silent films than modern movies. My favorite movie was in fact one I randomly stumbled on just four years ago and it’s the black and white classic The Apartment. Everything you showed is a movie I love so thank you so much for talking about this, I want more awareness and love brought to classic cinema.
@@booksboundnoveljourneys1122 I think it depends on the genre you like the most. There are a few I can recommend though; a Bette Davis called film Of Human Bondage; I think aside from her performance in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane that is one of her best, Two for the Road with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney is really good too, there’s a lot out there and I say take a chance if the plot interests you watch it, you never know what you may find. 😉
Loved the video….i definitely agree that history always has ugly aspects and movies portray those past ideals as well But we can analyze them and look at the brilliant side of the cinema at the same time
I think the discussion also needs to talk about one more thing: classics from which country? As a Chinese immigrant who loves watching movies, I'm constantly asked why I don't watch the classics, but I DO watch the classics... from Asia. Chinese classics are my classics, not the West. So when we say we should watch the classics, is it Americentric?
@@mewesquirrel6720 many Asian classics have impacted world cinema. Japanese cinema has continuously influenced Western directors. And Chinese cinema has influenced many Southeast Asian and East Asian media. Add onto the fact that Chinese are the largest ethnic group in the world means Chinese cinema is quite influential.
Only if you hear "Classic Hollywood" or "Hollywood." There are a lot of directors from elsewhere in the world that have also had a huge impact on cinema even if no one but Quentin Tarantino has ever heard of them in the west. Akira Kurosawa (though not Chinese, obviously) is partially responsible for a lot of the 70s-80s Westerns, Adventures, etc. He, in turn, frequently ripped off Shakespeare.
@@mewesquirrel6720 Honestly, I had never heard of Citizen Kane. Half of the American classics probably did not impact the world. Psycho and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly probably had more of an impact if that is how we measure it. I consider Sissi a classic, but I doubt many Americans watched that movie.
Watching classic films (mostly pre-Code) is about all I do! I would much rather do that than watch football, which seems to be all anyone’s into. I want to make my way through Bergman, Renoir, Visconti, Kurosawa, and all of that!
@@jacobdearancibia9436 I did very much. It’s a short sweet romcom that was actually pretty funny. The characters were beyond loveable. But Jimmy Stewart ofc took the cake. His way of speaking is just so nice to listen to.
I'm 15 and God I'm crazy about classic old movies of Hollywood and Bollywood I'd love to get more recommendations. Classic old cinema is something I love very much it's all I am crazy about.
You have so many good points to watch these old classics. And I like to add one too: when you want in your own stories that have a historical setting characters who behave and talk realistically, watch movies from for example the 1940 that take place in the 1940s. Even when the readers had not watch those movies, they will notice that the language spoken does fit.
Having grown up with only 3 TV channels, the odds of my watching older movies was much better. The local stations would play older films over and over since their budgets were so low. The majority of films made are pretty much forgotten. Even this video of yours lists about 25 movies. As for color: Henry V was filmed in color and Olivier's next movie, Hamlet ,was shot in b/w, The critics were convinced that Hamlet was a more introspective work so it needed the b/w treatment. Olivier said it was because he had a big argument with Technicolor so he had no choice. Most of the big musicals in the 40s were in great color and the film noirs were all in b/w. This generation has a lot of choice but they will always pick the most recent movie out. Back in the 40s and 50s, most movie houses had double features, but they only stayed around for 1 or 2 weeks. You should also add that the story lines were much quicker, the actors spoke more rapidly, the action was less intense but made more sense to the story. Try watching Double Indemnity and not getting hooked after 10 minutes. Try watching Born Yesterday and wondering if it's a comedy.
I agree that people need to go back to classics in all artistic mediums, but the reasoning behind it is usually BS. "Oh, people are only used to the same thing over and over." "New technology is to blame." With new tools, come new audiences and new approaches to a genre, and the more people like something, the more executives will pump out more of that same thing to bring in audiences. Guess what? People did that in the 1940s and 1950s, too. A book sparks imagination in a way a play never will, just like a play to a black and white film. Just consume art that's useful & beautiful. It's really that simple. Making this generational is just splitting hairs.
Then there come the screwy copyright laws.. It’s far easier for companies not to rerelease great black and white films, partly due to their current status as old fashioned minnows and partly due to complex music rights issues.
I just share this comment on another channel about films & decided to post it again here since I mention The Take in it along with two movies The Take has covered in videos before. Warning, it's a long one so apologies in advance: I wanted to see Love Actually until I accidentally learned it had bad relationships & behavior along with good. So I decided against seeing it... at first. But watching your video after also watching Why We Need Classic Movies (And How To Save Them) by youtube channel The Take, a channel which also focuses on movie content - you've changed my mind because both helped me realize that just because a movie has something very unhealthy or unhealthy or alarming doesn't mean I shouldn't see it or that I can't like it. As long as viewers recognize what behavior is bad in the movie, why it's bad or wrong in any way then we should use movies to vicariously explore things of our nature in a wide scope because in all honesty how many people experience in real life what they see in most movies? I also realized it's better to acknowledge something that's uncomfortable than ignore or dismiss it (such as the treatment of black people by society as portrayed in film today or back then like in Gone with the Wind or The Help for examples among many or Promising Young Woman on how women are victimized by men and other women) by not seeing a film that has something that is no longer decent in some way and that way people can grow & become more open-minded by experiencing someone else's life through the tv screen. Any film that affects us emotionally in a good or bad way has the potential to help us grow as human beings connecting to the people we see on the screen. Ignoring it by not seeing such films is almost as bad as saying 'racism doesn't exist today' and whether or not someone has seen or like such films doesn't mean they agree with anything bad in them or guilty of it themselves in any way. At best that's one way people can acknowledge the past & even current mistreatment based on things like race, gender etc. I also realize it's not bad for kids/teens to watch certain films I'm uncomfortable with them seeing to a degree as long as they are old enough to understand my explanation of why certain things in the movies were 'bad' rather than romantic & not something to use as an example on how they should behave or treat anyone. I think I need to end this here as it's too long at even half the length. Thanks for this great video. I'm going to watch Love Actually after all. Happy Holidays & Happy New Year to everyone and a special thank you to two of my favorite youtube channels: 'Cinema Therapy' & 'The Take', I highly recommend subscribing to both channels and watching their content if you like watching movies 🎄🎇🎉
I love this video! I’ve had a lot of fun watching old movies and learning about ✨cinema✨ and what I DO love about movies today is the potential of accessibility. At what other point could I own both the Red Headed Woman, 12 Angry Men AND The Country Bears? I want more people to have that kind of experience!
I love older films from the 30s to the late 60s because they seemed like more realistic situations. Of course some of them have strange hijinks but it’s one of those “why not?” Kinds of things. Some of my favorite films are frank capra directed films. ‘Meet John Doe’ made a huge impact on me when I first watched it when I was 14. I’ve started looking up older films and writing down which ones I liked so I can hopefully find them on DVD.
There should be an "outdated classics" category for classic movies that didn't age well with the times because we keep assuming that classic =/= timeless when that's not the case because of the obvious stereotypes of marginalized groups and societal standards/pop culture references at the time.
Agreed. And there should also be classics beyond the 40's and 50's. If something from 2000 were to keep up until 2050, that should be considered classic as well.
Everything is made for its time period, so being “outdated” doesn’t make much sense. Even the movies you deem not outdated will one day be outdated for one reason or another. Societies change, nothing wrong with that. We can’t expect all media to remain “timeless”. Loom at it more as a historian and you will enjoy it a lot more.
@@mastersnet18 People have this obsession with "timelessness" in their movies and shows so they don't age poorly as the years go by, whether it's pop culture references or outdated societal standards.
@@raphaelmarquez9650 I’m not sure why though. I don’t understand why everything has to fit in with the time and place a person lives in and it’s social mores, norms, ethics, etc. I personally find it strange.
@@mastersnet18 Because pop culture references to whatever time period the film was made at that time are a common complaint in some movies due to how they negatively age the film's quality as future generations won't understand the reference.
There are many! One of my favorite films is the 1950s adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Spectacular performances from Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier, some of the biggest Black actors of their time. I could go on-and maybe I will, because I do agree that this video doesn’t address Black/POC American or Global South classic film at all
I'm a Millennial and I love classic movies! I loved TCM's Reframed programming and I think that the films people are afraid will be "cancelled" will never be cancelled because as long as people can see them and buy them, they won't be cancelled. It seems to be a privileged projection because those with privilege do not want to see Gone With The Wind in an anti-racist context, because they fear confronting their own implicit biases. We can see these films, recognize the realities of historical trauma in present day from plantation slavery to carceral slavery, notice the beautiful cinematography, and celebrate the excellent performances in that film. And that isn't the only film that can be seen that way. The fact is, people with privilege often want the comfort of their privilege with the disconnect of their privileges' oppressive impact, which is why the fear of cancel culture is often a cisgender, white, male, Christian, heterosexual, and abled fear. All this being said, I cannot afford cable, still watch DVDs on a player, still buy DVDs, CDs, and vinyls, and have progressive political views that the reality of the regressive status quo in the United States reacts with projective fear towards. If we don't look at our own history honestly, which classic films do allow us to do too, then we continue creating negative impacts and repeating history.
I wasn't introduced to classic cinema until I started studying film in college. I don't even know how on earth I was pre-disposed to love films like "It's a Wonderful" life when the only "old" movie I grew up watching was "The Wizard of Oz." My parents just didn't prioritize entertainment in the house I grew up in. Years after I started buying myself films like "The Quiet Man" or "A Patch of Blue," my grandmother started asking me what I thoughts about those kinds of films, and I was just so shocked that all this time she was like this living library of old Hollywood classics. I was so happy to have this new link to her, while also really upset with her for not raising my mother on these films haha. Anyways, this is handily my favorite video from you guys. Excellent work.
The first real classic movie I watched was 'Singin' in the Rain', when I was twelve or thirteen, and my sister and I became obsessed. It was funny, entertaining, the dancing was amazing, and we annoyingly kept quoting the over-the-top dialogue. It was such a feel good movie. I admit I don't avidly watch classics, but I do love them when I do, and I'm trying to watch them more often. The one thing that I dislike about classic movies, though, is that often the sound is very high-pitched and loud, I guess because of the way that sound was captured and edited in those days. One time I tried watching 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' on a plane, and noise-cancelling headphones would've come in real handy, because of how much I had to pump up the volume to be able to hear over the engine, I don't know if that can cause permanent hearing damage, but it sure felt like it.
I never knew "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore" was from an older film. I think I heard it in a cartoon, I can't really remember..
I’m checking out movies from all decades! There’s a magic about the classics that doesn’t have the same feel today! There are gems in the modern era of course, but the classics have gems too!! Intelligent dialogue, superb acting, distinctive camerawork, why should these be missed out on? There are so many good ones to be seen! It’s all there, and the classics need the recognition they so rightfully deserve!
In the 20th Century, every form of mass media has been in conflict with each other. Yet, cinema has prevailed. It’s not a question of death, but renaissance and adaptability.
Thank you for this 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 I used to be less attracted to some of the classics, but boy, once I got over those barriers a whole new world opened up for me, specially with black & white, which takes everything to a whole new level (The Apartment, Sunset Blvd, Some like it hot, Roman holiday, etc)
If you're near London and want to get into classic cinema, check out the BFI, the ICA, the Prince Charles Cinema near Liecester Square, and the Cinema Museum in Kennington - all have regular screenings of films from across the eras.
I feel this so hard. Growing up in India, I was a typical kid who'd be glued to Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon, but after a certain hour (9 or 10 pm) Cartoon Network would stop programming and it would switch to MGM and the few times I happened to catch what was on TV, it was usually black and white movies that I was too sleepy to enjoy. So I naturally grew up with the whole "B&W is for old people thing" and it wasn't until I came across Seven Samurai in a DVD rental store and watched it that my mind was blown and a love of the craft of filmmaking was born.
When someone says they hate watching old/black and white films, I take serious offense. It shows a tremendous amount of ignorance in their thinking. I think it’s important for people to be exposed to classic films early. I was exposed to classic cinema because my father taught a classic film course. Before showing the VHS tapes at school, he would first watch them at home, allowing me to see them. To be perfectly honest, I’ve probably seen more black and white movies than color movies. I’ve also shown my niece and nephew various classic films. Even though they’re only ten, they don’t find such cinema odd or jarring, but many adults do. Heck, some people think movies from 2005 are old. Don’t these people realize that in twenty years, the films they like now will be considered old? Will they then suddenly turn their backs on them? The trivialities of time don’t determine the merit of a work of art.
@Nang Lei What a stupid remark, seriously! Not every old/BnW movie was filled with stereotypes, sexism and racism. Many of them had good story and character writing that don’t rely on previously mentioned issues. Way to stereotype all movies. Also, not all BnW movies are white/American. Many non-white countries/America(e.g. Japan) had prominent movie industries, did they automatically portray stereotypes? Or movies from countries lie, France and Britain had movies with themes like homophobia and explored women and their stories in a modern/less sexist way. Do these films need to be ignored simply because they’re old/BnW??
Thank you for this great video on an important topic! This has affected me in two very direct ways: 1) My mom is in her 80s and get out much. A year or so ago I had the idea to get her a streaming service that had classic movies from when she was young. I was shocked by how difficult it was to find any service that had any. I even consulted former students of mine (I teach high school) who are now film or theater students, and I ended up giving up on the idea. 2) As a long-time history teacher I don't show a lot of movies, but sometimes they can be useful to help students understand the past. As recently as the early 2010s I could show films (not even classics, good low budget TV films, too) made in the '60s or '70s and the students would find them powerful. The 1979 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a great example of this. At some point, though, I realized I couldn't use films from those eras any more because most students just couldn't get past the low production values, the physicality of the actors, and the lengthy dialogue.
I discovered Classic movies in my twenties and fell in love. I've been watching less and less classics because of less accessibility. My main source was TCM. I loved the before and after commentary to contextualize the movie, along with the sentimental attachment from the celebrity guest. It was perfect to introduce the relevance of the film! But, now that I've 'cut the cord' because of exorbitant prices it's difficult to find classic movies. TCM is now relegated to a sports package by my cable company and I'm even less likely to pay extra for highway robbery. It's clear that I miss TCM. I wish they could manage to end their dependency on the cable companies and offer a full-online service.
TCM is a great channel/network to watch, study or "stumble upon" these classic films. I'm surprised they didn't elaborate more on that, but maybe it's because a majority of people turn to more streaming platforms than television cable options these days. Also, I'd like to see Netflix and other streaming services jump on this a little more if viewers are interested.
As a teenager I could never have imagined myself watching a black and white movie, but your tastes change and evolve over time. Once you get into your twenties you begin watching a wider variety of films and watching them with a more open mind. I think classic movies will be fine, they are classics for a reason and that whole Hollywood golden era is the most romanticized period of film history. Perhaps it will have the same fate as classical music, therefor still maintaining a very passionate and appreciative fan base, even if it means it is more of a niche thing.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
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Yeah no One respects Older Cinema Any more & That's A Crying Same You Got too look back at the older things to see the newer things of Cinema and see That They are much both similar in nature and in cinema
The lack of diversity is why they don't appeal to newer generations. Why would anybody who isn't white look back at the oh o good times of the 1940's where it wasn't even allowed to cast leads who are of colour?
You guys will never know how much I value and respect your minds and opinions, and how life changing and educating your videos are. They're so in depth, and leave absolutely no question unanswered. You have beautifully philosophical minds and you just help so many people see life in as many layers as you do. Thank you truly, so much 💗💗💗
People nowadays are dying even sooner than their parents... Do you really think they have the time or the patience for all of these CLASSIC MOVIES??? 🤔
I'm 32, my brother's 17, and I've shown him literally hundreds of classic black and white films, and believe it or not, he's enjoyed LOTS of them. Kids just need to be exposed to them more.
I'm 25 and my sister is 10 and she absolutely dislikes all Disney princess classic and is into all the new ones like Rayponce, Frozen, Moana, Inside out, Tinker Bell series.
I don't know it seems like little girls today don't really look up to Princes and Princesses stories like I was when I was their age. It doesn't sparkles their eyes anymore and they're more into a female following an adventure, they're waiting for the female character to do *important things* which never occurred to me back then.
I was watching Sleeping beauty and my sister asked "Is she gonna stay dead until the end of the movie?" I was kinda embarrassed by the question because the answer was yes lol.
@@cherchehacknostale They're still into princess stories, but like you said its the ones who take action and not waiting to be saved
@@cherchehacknostale Well in that genre the newer female leads are progressive and active in their destinies, and not passive characters with little to say. So I get that. In fact, good for her! Maybe as she gets older she'll appreciate classic cinema such as the examples from this episode of The Take.
That's what my dad did the early the better.
That's awesome.
The less budget and technology, the more creative special effects are. It's truly amazing how inventive these old movies were with shot compositions and special effects.
My favourite thing about black and white cinema is how they could use different coloured makeup to change someone's entire countenance with a mere change of lights colour, transforming people into werewolves or witches, it's mind numbingly effective :) If I make a movie I want to do it in black and white just so I can play with the effect of different coloured light on different coloured makeup :)
@@Shindai I know right!! Like the witch scene from Sh! The octopus. That looks amazing and they did it all with makeup and lights! I doubt modern cinematic directors would ever come up with creative effects like that. Imagine having to think of special creative ways to shoot scenes instead of just “fixing it in post”. Old films had so much love and creativity put into them!!
That’s one of my favorite elements of older films- practical effects are an art form in a way that CGI just can’t duplicate
That’s pretty broad. Many of “those old movies” had very high budgets.
You're right! We can learn a lot from them. I'll keep it in mind. Thanks :)
As a kid I loved watching Turner Classic Movies. I wish more of those movies were available on Netflix and Prime
tcm has all their movies on HBOmax
Prime has lots of classic movies actually
Same.
I know Amazon prime has tcm movies and HBO go.
Dude! This was how I was introduced to classic cinema and short form comedies from Three Stooges, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy as well! I used to spend summers with my grandpa by the ocean and TCM was one of the only channels besides Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network I discovered on my own that I enjoyed. Spent literal hours some days watching whatever the programming had to offer. I owe TCM a huge debt of gratitude and I wish it was easier to use. It seems the streaming channel doesn’t work without a cable or satellite subscription 😕
Film literacy is so important…….. Maybe not “solving world hunger” important or such, but there’s a shallow way movies are made today that make people get used to performances focusing on realism, scenes being fast paced, and the camera using close ups as a way to que the audience when they should feel, that people become emotionally stinted in their own less stimulated environment, and less open to the wider range of empathetic emotions in their own lives. Classic movies and the many many artistic ways they were expressed heals the soul, and helps us grow in our emotional and empathetical maturity, and be less afraid of that maturity.
I agree.
I agree, but also I would expand to media literacy. If you are only have one source to get your information, what literacy you have??
@@cursed3artemis True, true. Maybe I should try to elaborate a bit more, just to distinguish media and film. Because film isn't just about the story, the dialogue, or the themes. It isn't just about information as media would be in most aspects. Story and dialogue are devices that engage our relationship and understanding of how we experience the cinema artform. We're watching a crafting of the story as much as the story of the film, and that craftsmanship of the editing and lighting and staging, etc, also communicates a perceived emotional view of the world. Not just the story. Because a story can be told in many different ways depending on the director, and the year those films were made. Just the very year a film was made communicates with us the emotions and ideas of the time, even if its story takes place in the past or distant future.
@@michaelyakiwchuk43 Yeargh, I shure hope so... These so-called 'Millennials' just don't seem to think that way tho! 🤨
When I was 19, I transferred to an out of state university, and it left me without a social outlet. This was in the year 2000, so no social media. However, I watched a lot of movies at this time to decompress during this time. I saw Casablanca, Rocky horror picture show, Blue lagoon, Bus Stop, The Graduate & many more iconic films. Today's technology often makes me feel like it's shortened my attention span, as well as limiting my availability to discover music or films from the past to love.
I feel the exact same way!
Yep, that's right my friend! 👍
And the SADDEST part of all, is that NOBODY likes to hear the TRUTH... Might take 'em like around 20-30 years before they could even figure that out, but they WILL find out eventually. The HARD way! By then, they'll be all wondering WTF happened to their LIFE? Where the hell did it go? 🤔🤨😳🙄😞💀
We shouldn’t erase history just because we personally might not like it. Without it, we don’t learn from the past’s mistakes learn from, gain from their wisdom and won’t be able to fully appreciate the progress we made.
I don't agree with you. Do you need to feel and see what a punch do to your face to know it will most likely hurt ?
No. We don't need to see racist, misogynistic and homophobic movies to know we shouldn't do the same.
@@cherchehacknostale of course youd think this way haha
@@cherchehacknostale i do agree with you. these movies should definitely be talked about, but there isnt a need to watch them if they are offensive. to watch is to view for pleasure or enjoyment or learning. if you know a movie comes from an era where offensive things are okay, what is the need to watch if thats all you'll get from it, that these things are offensive. its just like confederate statues. they dont need to be there to know they are bad. just like you dont need to watch these movies to know they are offensive. you can put them in a learning environment amd teach about it rather than show the offensiveness or else people will think its for entertainment or a celebration of these people.
@@cherchehacknostale Some people DO need to see these things first hand to fully understand how harmful they are. Believe it or not, not everyone learns the same way, and it’s ableist to try to shame others for it.
I’ve had the misfortune of meeting racists, sexists and homophobes who truly believe they are doing nothing wrong.
Movies reflect the times they are made in, for better and for worse. You can still enjoy a piece of media while still being critical of it.
A difference between now and the time period the movies mentioned in the video is that awareness for various social issues are MUCH higher now than then. We see that through our media.
@@cherchehacknostale the less obviously these views are observed, the more likely people are to become desensitized to these issues. For some seeing really id believing - the same impact just isn’t felt by anecdotal conversations or lessons for some. They need to observe the extent that past beliefs shaped peoples lives and perceptions to truly understand the nuance, depth, and horror of certain issues. This is where critical thinking comes into play with film - one needs to be able to dissect the film from their own standpoint, and promote a nuanced discussion of how life used to be, where we are now, and what we still need to do to grow. This can be achieved by engaging with such media, rather than dismissing it. Those who are not fully aware/exposed to the past are much more likely to repeat it.
To everyone complaining that the classics have no POC representation: totally right, but you can/should always watch old Hollywood movies with a critical perspective. Learn from their artistic skills, cinematic language, but also from their mistakes.
^^THIS^^
Its seriously as simple as understanding they were made in a different era with a whole different line of thinking and what we deem bad, inappropriate, racist, sexist and anything phobic was basically seen as normal back then. I'm sure future generations will have the same thoughts about our current standards and norms especially during Covid years down the line. Its part in parcell of human nature and evolution. We tend to criticise and place the past under a microscope way too much without putting much thought into what the norms were in those days and how they differed significantly from the norms of the further past before that era.
Exactly. I just watched It's a Wonderful Life last night. The beautiful woman always has paper white skin, big light eyes, light hair, & has that perfect shoulder to hip ratio hourglass shape. Women are constantly grabbed by the arm or the waist when unprovoked. Men giving kisses to women without consent. Even if it's just on the head. Some strange old man kisses me on the head & he'll get a goddamn earful. The mammy character is horribly racist. It is certainly a product of its time.
But also, it's a movie about the struggles of the working class. How capitalist hogs will buy up every business and home & then extort the community & rob them of any wealth they once had while making sure they sure as hell can't gain anymore wealth either. People are living in slums, a child dies of the flu and his father becomes a drunk & almost poisons another child. It shows how financial stress can turn a bright, happy young person into a miserable violent angry drunk. Even the line about it being difficult for a working man to save $5000 is still massively true today. I sure as hell don't have anywhere close to $5k at one time and even if I did it'd be going to my huge bills & debt. It shows how, even in your darkest of days, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Was It's a Wonderful Life horribly backwards in many ways? HELL YES. Was it also way the fuck ahead of its time on other issues? Yes!
None of that means I think every single person should like that movie. Mammy doesn't trigger me bc I'm not black. Women being touched doesn't trigger me bc it hasn't happened to me much. It pisses me off that those were once acceptable things to do/think. But I could see being a female victim of assault or being PoC or maybe even just being queer (considering the heteronormativity) making it hard to watch movies like this. It's all about your perspective. If watching movies like this makes you uncomfortable, turn it off and watch something that does make you happy bc you deserve to be happy!
@kotoba great point, and to add, many countries have their own canon of classic movies - some countries to check out - Iran, India, south America, Egypt etc.
"Mistakes." Dude, it's not their culture.
Back in 2010, a dear friend of mine posted a list of her favorite Oscar winning films, none which I had never seen or known about. I decided to change that and watched as many classic films as possible and became fascinated by them and chronicled all the films I had watched and what I loved and didn't like about them. It made me appreciate how classic stories were told in their limited medium and how many of them are literal works of art. Plus I found my favorite movie of a time; "Singin' in the Rain". To me it's a perfect film that combines color, spectacle, humor, heart, romance, and even sarcasm and cynicism. It's one of those movies that will never be made again. The CLOSEST film I feel came to achieving "Singin' in the Rain" balance was "La La Land".
Yeah, I just saw 'Singing in the Rain' a few days ago. I've watched a bunch of movies from the 50s or earlier, but very few musicals from that era (the only other musicals I've really enjoyed, are 70s/80s stuff like 'Little Shop of Horrors', 'Blues Bros' and 'Rocky Horror'). But 'Singin In The Rain' really surprised me- Way more accessable, and entertaining than I was expecting, as someone who's been put off by old musicals, before.
Please share the list :)
I love Singing in the Rain!
I used to live next door to a pair of 20 year olds who said they don't watch movies made before 2000, and I was dumbfounded. Like, they don't just happen to favour more recent movies, they specifically don't watch movies from before 2000. They're missing out on some of the best movies ever made.
Disagree about La La Land -- I strongly disliked that movie and its narcissistic characters -- but YAY for Singin' in the Rain! What an awesome discovery to have made. It's one of the funniest, most joyous movies in existence, and a lot less "dated" than people might suspect. The humor snaps, and the performances (especially Jean Hagen's) are spot on.
The director of Passing shared in an interview that she fought for years to have the movie be in Black n White so many folks resisted her vision . Many folks wanted to make the movie 🎥 but wanted it in color . Glad she stuck to her vision and did the film she wanted to see
Yes, PLEASE!!! Classic cinema needs a larger presence today! Many of the films released today are formed and influenced by these older films from a bygone era, and discovering these classics actually brings us to appreciate the newer films that build upon the past.
I would a 100% subscribe to a streaming service that only has the classics. I've always loved classical movies but as I grew older and met new people I realized that many people my age don't like and don't understand classical movies because they are not as exposed to them as I am. When I was little all we did was watch old black and white movies.
Then MUBI is made for you!
I love this!
Classic films evoke a sense of comfort and nostalgia from our childhoods, and their timeless messages hold up to this very day, much like "It's a Wonderful Life".
People nowadays are dying even sooner than their parents... Do you really think they have the time or the patience for all of these CLASSIC MOVIES??? 🤔
A movie that is a classic and timeless is “The Best Years of our Lives “ with themes of PTSD, divorce, infidelity, unemployment and true love. Plus there is All About Eve which has not held up quite as well but is a fantastic film.
I've only seen it once, but what I got from All About Eve is that unless women see through the trap that there's always someone coming up behind you trying to take your spot, the fighting between us will prevent our being able to help each other and make the art that we love.
I took a film class in college and that’s what made me fall in love with Old Hollywood.
Suggestion: Since you guys seem to enjoy Brando’s work why wouldn’t you make a video on how he changed acting? Or how he affected the way people defined masculinity in the 50s? That would be really interesting and I don’t think anyone has done it on TH-cam.
I'm currently studying for a first degree in cinema and media, and spending my first course hearing about all the work put into these movies and the strong meanings behind them was pretty mind-opening. Not every movie was perfect and not every message was something to admire (Birth of A Nation is a good example), but we can learn from them and preserve what they meant to those directors and the influence it brought onto cinema in general.
Just saw Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the first time recently and was amazed how applicable it was to todays political issues, plus the writing was 👌
It’s very funny and surprisingly dark, one of my all time favorites
That last 30 minutes is phemomenal and in my book easily Jimmy Stewart's best performance of his entire career. Its just so physical and also really dangerous when you learn that he had to use Mercury pills which we now know are deadly to the human body to get his voice to sound so dry and exhausted.
Mr. Smith is a great movie! I discovered the lovely actress Jean Arthur through this classic and, of course, the performances from everyone else were terrific too.
@@christopherborroughs8526 Claude Rains gives one of my favorite supporting performances ever, his ever-increasing disappointment in his own choices and genuine care for Jeff is heartbreaking.
i literally watched it yesterday and it broke me. sure, it started out a little slow but that lest half was mindblowing and heartbreaking
Great films will ALWAYS be relevant and worth watching and appreciating. That’s what makes them great.
I would love to see a dissection of the Before trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight) for Valentine's day; the film depicts different versions of love and how it transforms as time progresses. Plus, it has some of the best simplistic, character driven dialogue
I am in my thirties and an emerging filmmaker who absolutely loves classic films from Hollywood's Golden Age. Some of my favorites are in black and white including "His Girl Friday", "Casablanca", "All About Eve" and "Some Like It Hot". I also love old comedic films by the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin. I began watching Chaplin films on VHS tapes as a kid so thank you to my parents for making that available. I get so much enjoyment from these old films and constantly go back to them. I can't say the same about the majority of new releases. I understand very well the problem you're talking about in this video because when I took a filmmaking course last year they asked us to write about our favorite classic movies. It disappointed me that most of my classmates only mentioned "old" movies from the 80s and 90s...sometimes "The Wizard of Oz" but that was it. I think they're missing out...and I didn't get to have the conversations about film that I was hoping to have. :/ I am Hispanic/Latina so I understand the representation issues but I still think classic films have so much value both for entertainment and educational purposes.
I acknowledge that taste is subjective, but I find it really hard to imagine anyone not finding movies like Casablanca or A Matter of Life and Death engaging. Black and white means nothing when you care about what's happening.
I'd completely forgotten about A Matter of Life and Death - I saw it was once but it's stunning.
Just recently saw Some Like It Hot and was surprised at how funny that shit still was. Also interesting to see what was considered "normal" during past eras.
A classic!
I love that movie. That movie was ahead of its time. In fact, if you check out more of Billy Wilder's work, you will see that the messages in some of his other films still hold relevance. Jack Lemmon is one of my favorite actors from that era.
@@rebeccassweetmusic4632 I definitely will/am. Any hits from him you recommend?
@@Chandasouk You must watch Jack Lemmon in The Apartment! Billy Wilder also wrote the screenplay for that film and it also starred a very young Shirley MacLaine. Its message about boundaries and standing your ground still holds true today
Although The Wizard of Oz has always been a favorite of mine from childhood (older millennial here), it took me until a film class in high school in my mid teens for me to truly appreciate black and white films and now I count movies like The Thin Man, Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace and His Girl Friday (among others) as favorite films too.
Just watched The Thin Man yesterday. Watch it every year for Christmas and do the sequel (After the Thin Man) for NYE.
@@batspleenfriend Me too. After the Thin Man is all set up for NYE. It's a good one!
Arsenic And Old Lace! My Lord, Cart Grant and Raymond Massey AND Peter Lorre! Love that film...
@@JoseMorales-lw5nt OMG, Arsenic and Old Lace is just perfect! It's one of my favorites!
Spielberg nailed it. His adaptation of West Side Story was mind-blowing. Beautiful cinematography and excellent execution of the dance and musical numbers, just like in the 50s but with a modern and new touch to it. The script was also definitely more realistic and immersive. A true experience on the big screen. I also loved Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and the movie Passing for bringing back the black and white aesthetic, absolutely gorgeous. 2021 was truly a good year for cinema.
the original was better (imo)
Is the remake that good? I’ll watch it for the dance numbers but I have never been a West Side Story fan (I don’t care for Romeo and Juliet at all, and the songs don’t outshine the overall story for me)
@@KatieLHall-fy1hw in my opinion. They each do certain things better. I can't say it's superior to the original as a whole, but it is certainly not a carbon copy. Both have their merit.
i started going to the british film institute in london (which only charges £3 if youre under 25) to watch a lot of movies from the 1950's etc. It feels much easier to engage with these movies if you watch them how they were designed to be watched- with an audience.
London is a great place for a classic film fan! As well as the BFI, check out the ICA, the Prince Charles Cinema near Liecester Square, and the Cinema Museum in Kennington - all have regular screenings of films from across the eras.
It's not until you start watching lots of classic films that you realise just how often modern film makers lift ideas from them. It happens all. The. Time! Alfred Hitchcock, Joseph von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, Busby Berkley - I spot homages to their works constantly. And I love it, as it means film makers are still enjoying and learning from them, and reconising that they still have value today.
I watched a few classic films recently such as It's A Wonderful Life (1946), Miracle On 34th Street (1947), We're No Angels (1955) and just tonight I watched The Mark Of Zorro (1920)
Vertigo may be the best ever made. Also, Rear Window, what Hitchcock did with a small set, the drama in a single room and it’s view, is impressive.
One of the best . I never get tired of it.
Rear Window is one of my favorite movies!
The fact that this topic even needs a video dedicated to it is concerning! “They don’t make films like they used to” and modern Hollywood has suffered for it. Films with heart and character now relegated to the background for big budget franchises. Worst thing is that I cannot see it changing any time soon
I'm not generally a critic of modernity or technological progress, but I agree that today's blockbuster films are very shallow intellectually and emotionally. Many franchise films rely way too much on how impressive the CGI is, but the story is so forgettable most of the time... Not all the time of course, but in general.
@@lisaw150 That's what sells, both domestically and internationally (which is now hugely important to studios and distributors, as international markets such as China and the rest of Asia, can bring in far more profit to them than the U.S.). People will pay, and pay at theaters, to see them. And then later pay to see it again online. And buy the merchandise for themselves or their kids. Very, very profitable stuff.
In the 90s, when people still had to pay to go to theaters, or else pay for video rentals, the market became more diverse and a lot of independent American films came out in that time. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Hal Hartley, Richard Linklater, Gus Van Sant, Whit Stillman, Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson and more, all came out of the 90s and 2000s working on small, independent films. So much more indie cinema came out in those times, as there was more funding available to them, because some of those films made back money, in some cases making huge returns. When online piracy and file sharing, and free movies became widely available in the 2000s, profits plummeted for many filmmakers. And what happens? Financing dries up. Indies struggle. And studios want to only back bigger projects that they believe to have obvious money making potential. Now more than ever, they rely on big budget action films and Marvel or DC Comics films, since they can be sold worldwide (especially China) and are sure bets. Studios can no longer be sure of making money on other types of films. Those films are harder to sell abroad (especially China and Asia).
That's why countries which provide strong support to their own home industries, such as France, Australia, and South Korea, have produced a lot of successful and acclaimed films that have found recognition outside their own countries. For example, South Korea had a theater quota system, which favored Korean films, helping to push the industry by giving them a home market. Same goes for France. Australia had state and national government organizations which provided funding, as well as theater quotas, and national and state film and drama schools to provide training and nurture talent.
@@SY-ok2dq True. Those programmes really help preserve diversity and quality. Then again, I'm a European snob, I guess. I like the occasional Marvel-esque action film, but it would be a shame if that was all there is. I think that's what Scorsese was getting at too: those films kill genre diversity.
@@lisaw150 That's the market economy for you. Film making, and film distribution, are very expensive processes. And in a capitalist system, companies driven by profits and maximum returns with lower risks, are going to prefer films that are more likely to be sure bets. Hence we see the domination of these action blockbusters (which export well to other more lucrative markets like China), especially ones based on "name" franchises like Marvel or DC comics.
These films are not the reason for this lack of diversity. They're not killing diversity. Rather, they are the product of current market forces and corporate players in the market. Theater attendance has been going down for decades. In addition, the replacement of the secondary video/DVD rental market with streaming and online digital services has reduced that source of profits.
As I mentioned before, it's only through the intervention and support (financial, infrastructure, legal requirements etc.) of the governments of some countries that those countries have maintained and nurtured their local filmmaking industry and been able to find success beyond their borders. This has brought cultural influence and recognition to these countries which they would have less of, without the success of their films. France, Australia, and South Korea have had much greater success compared to neighboring countries of similar population size and wealth. If they just relied upon the corporate sector and capitalist market forces, these countries would be in a very different position today.
Hence that's why from a cultural standpoint it is beneficial for a country to spend state money to fund infrastructure for local film making, even though it isn't profitable right away.
Classic Films are wonderful. It is A wonderful Life and Casblanca are some of my favorites.
Please don't lump all Millennials together or feed into the media stereotype. I am considered a Millennial and I'm almost 40. I was raised by Boomer parents that showed me the classics. The "young kids" are now Generation Z.
even then older gen Z (1997-2002/3) often have knowledge of old school media, whether implicit or explicit. It's later Gen Z (2004-2009), possibly Gen Alpha (2010-present), that are less knowledgeable, likely because of having no access or desire to see the classics.
It's Citizen Kane and Humphrey Bogard's work for me, particularly In A Lonely Place and Maltese Falcon. The amount of effort Orson Welles put into his debut movie was insanely detailed, and pay in mind he made it when he was TWENTY FIVE. That's one hell of a flex.
I love how this video almost feels like a love letter to classic movies
One of my favourite movies of all time is Arsenic and Old Lace; when I took a pop culture class back in college we had an assignment to bring in a clip of a movie and discuss what the scene was about and how the director and actors had executed it. I remember being the only person out of the maybe 14 person class to have a black and white movie and that at first they didn't seem to keen on it. I played the scene I was showing and by the end the entire class was roaring with laughter and several came up to me afterwards to ask about the name of the movie again so they could watch it themselves.
I wish it was easier to watch some of them online, I miss when the local channels would play classic movies late at night, I found so many odd and unknown to me gems that way.
"Arsenic and Old Lace" is one of my all-time favourites as well. :-)
We wouldn't have the cinema of today without classic and/or older films. The same applies to television and music.
As a Millenial, I feel extremely lucky that my grandma introduced me to classic cinema at a young age with the Laurel and Hardy and Little Rascals shorts (my dad also happened to have a copy of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in his study). I was immediately hooked and my love for them grew from there, with the help of TCM and film classes in high school and college.
Now I'm an aspiring filmmaker myself and I always look forward to checking out new films that I haven't heard about before or discovering them by accident (that's how I discovered my favorite horror film of all time, The Uninvited (1947) for example.) I also want to make those kinds of films as well.
Classic Cinema is full of surprises and deep insights, and I feel more well rounded as a person because of it.
Very well said and I couldn’t agree more! My grandmother had 1 VHS of The Sandlot, and it was her only “new” kids movie when I was growing up. But, she had a ton of shorts from The Little Rascals, and my grandfather was a huge fan of old westerns; between them and the TCM channel, we watched a lot of black and white film as kids. I’m very grateful for it!
Though some of them are a little shocking to my husband, who never watched old movies growing up…I’ll never forget the look on his face when I explained the plot to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 😅
I love old films! Do you have any recommendations? I’ve seen most of the most popular and culturally significant ones and some more obscure ones. I’d love some more ideas.
@@booksboundnoveljourneys1122 Sure thing! Along with The Uninvited (1944), I recommend The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, both the 1940 and 1924 silent version of The Sea Hawk, Both the 1940 and the silent 1920 version of The Mark of Zorro, Rio Bravo, The Searchers, The Thin Man, Bringing Up Baby, To Catch a Thief, the 1939 version of The Four Feathers, A Matter of Life and Death, Chaplin's The Kid and Gold Rush, Keaton's The General and Sherlock Jr., The Little Rascals/Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Who Done It?, The Cat and The Canary (the 1927 version), The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Secret Weapon, and The Scarlet Claw starring Basil Rathbone, The Music Man, Forbidden Planet, The Thing From Another World, and the 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
@@VegimorphtheMovieBoy thank you!! To Catch a Thief is great! I’ve seen all Grace Kelly’s films.
@@booksboundnoveljourneys1122 You're welcome!
My mom got Netflix back when it was 3 DVDs at a time in the mail and almost everything she got was a classic/black and white film. I loved so many of them, particularly It Happened One Night. It’s like watching Shakespeare - you just need to sit in it and gradually you become more fluent in the vernacular and visual storytelling.
I was watching Singing In the Rain for the umpteenth time with my family over Christmas and uttered that phrase that proves you're getting old that they do not make films like this anymore. I was specifically talking about all the great dance routines in that film.
This is why I love HBO Max. They have a large catalogue of TCM/Criterion titles right alongside DC titles for example.
This is what I loved about your trope videos from a while back, how you would bring the past history of something like a femme fatale into relationship with the present. Your suggestions here are good, but I also think this channel could take more responsibility in what you're saying. A lot of videos recently have been based on the latest show-of-the-moment, like Clickbait for example. I like these videos and what they have to say about culture, but I think they could be richer when engaging the past more. I have no issue with 3 or whatever Squid Game videos, but maybe one of them more rigorously looks at Battle Royale, a criminally unknown (though admittedly not that old) movie that more people should see. Just something to think about maybe.
As always, i love what you guys put out and usually leave enriched. You made 2021 a lot better, and here's to 2022!
This is just a next step in progression. People during the era of these classic films probably asked “Are silent films dying?” In newspapers
FYI on a small detail: I'm in my early 30s. Been wanting to explore older films, even black and white films that have no sound but as stated in the video, streaming services only focus on the more recent & brand new films. I recently watched It's A Wonderful Life for Christmas with my Mom and I loved it though I wish it weren't in color. I also enjoyed Gone With The Wind when I was 15 though I likely wouldn't have seen it if it weren't for my Grandmother who had the film. I find I like watching films my parents and grandparents watched when they were kids, teenagers or young adults. As my grandparents are either deceased or out of state I like to watch the movies of their time to feel connected to them. I think I'll start collecting such movies.
Well done on deciding to explore the classics further! I don't know whereabouts you are, but Mubi, The Criterion Channel, the BFI player, and even Amazon Prime all have older movies in their library (you can always use a VPN if not all of these are available in your country). There's lots of blogs/Twitter accounts/etc out there focusing on particular eras/genres of classic cinema if you want to dig deep past the obvious choices. Have fun!
If you have cable TV, TCM is a wonderful place to start your classic movie journey. During their evening showings, the host will provide some background information on the film both at the beginning and at the end. Often, they will highlight a theme and curate films to said theme. My personal favorite is during the month of August, Summer Under the Stars, where they highlight one star each day.
I watched 'it's a wonderful life' in black and white. It's true you don't remember it being black and white. You only keep the emotions and the story with you. I couldn't even remember the title but could tell the story.
Growing up in the 80s, I used to watch all my Chaplins, Bogarts or Fred Astaires simply on TV after 11pm. Today the oldest movie they show on TV is Diehard, not even French Connection !
TCM has been my escape from reality since covid after hardwork and school I need a classical movie black and white or just any classic movie at the end of the day.
I feel like the marvel critique is a little unfair and gets to the heart of the issue here. That is: what film “ought” to be. Just because there is an ability for film to tell stories about the human experience and feelings without advanced technology doesnt mean that it “ought” to be that way. Some people want to go on those rides, some people just wanna see machines fight and heroes banter, and they are able to do that through film. I think the success of marvel shows that film is all that (about the classics) AND more. It’s marvel AND Casablanca. Do we have to critique other forms of film to lift up our personal favorites? I don’t think so, I think they’re all valid because film is just that amazing. Side note: This old school nostalgia conversation is reminiscent of the music industry’s analog vs digital conversation as well. This seems to be crossing all entertainment forms, and I think being able to let go of a linear view of the progression of art and instead embrace a blossoming, expansive, “yes and” approach is more conducive to the conversation. Because ultimately where we are now includes ALL of it, the past isn’t gone, it’s there AND there are new things having their moment. I’m glad that you guys are doing the work of keeping the past in the limelight because moving forward it’s gonna be our love and passion for our favorites that carries the torch and builds the future.
Thank you!
Yes!
Edit: and I'm not a fan of marvel!
Also, MCU has to be doing something right, otherwise pople wouldn't cry their eyes out in the cinema... And you don't cry in public because they stopped animating Iron Man's suit or Scarlett Johansson jumped off a green screen rock onto a matterace. Not to mention recenet accolades for WandaVision, which would have been a simple story about overwhelming grief if it wasn't for flying robots and witches. But what's wrong with those things? 3 years after Endgame people are not analysing CGI, but character development that lead us to that ending...
I am doing this "personal challenge" thing. Every time I want to see an episode from a TV show, I watch a "classic" movie, or an important movie that I never watched in their time (It's amazing how many gaps I have in my movie education). Sometimes it's an old movie (I loved Casablanca), but sometimes is just a blockbuster movie that I missed, like The Matrix. I've really had an excellent time, I couldn't recommend this exercise enough!!!
This may be your finest Take. I love old movies!!! Certainly any film student or person serious about the craft should have a significant education in those who came before them.
First of all, i hate the misconception that one genre of movies is killing the other. That you can't love Marvel movies and be a Kubrick's fan as well.
I think comes down to generation and the lack of understanding of a period piece. I feel in love for classics when i was 16, spend my whole high school and college, watching the full filmography of directors and actors i fell in love. Even influenced my parents to watch some with me, since they haven't watch them in ages.
In this day and age, people lack the patience to understand and appreciate something old, because they get too caught up on the stuff that haven't aged well. Just look what happened to Gone with the Wild.
Breaks my heart to see that in the age of streaming, where the accessibility of old movies are so much easier, the interest in almost none. But then again, even movies from the 2000 don't have that much appeal anymore.
I'm going to disagree slightly with you on those first two sentences. You are correct it is not mutually exclusive to enjoy the new Spider-Man movie and Dr. Strangelove. I think the problem lies in if that is the majority of movies people see are the comic book movies, and the studios are only going to give us what we say with our dollar we want.
It seems as though people are saying with their dollar "I want something I'm familiar with", not just comic movies but look at the Matrix, Star Wars, Fast & Furious.
Again, I enjoy those film series by and large, but what I enjoy the most about movies is seeing a story I never heard before.
Tell me about an Irish-Italian gangster's life of crime from the 50s - the 80s, I'd like to hear about how 12 strangers reached a verdict on a boy's murder trial, or how racial tensions between Koreans, Black people, Italians, and Puerto Ricans escalated on a hot day in a Brooklyn neighborhood. Storytelling is what makes it special, not the same story and characters told for the 6th time.
Talking about recommendations of black and white films, everyone who loves spooky films or even mysteries should watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It’s an hour long and with one of the best shots I’ve ever seen. Yes, it is silent, but everything is so weird and crooked that it became my favorite Halloween movie of all time
By this same logic: can you guys please review more classic films? For every gen Z/millenial hot show that gets views, you could drive engagement to classics by posting your take on them.
My mom’s a Baby Boomer, so I watched everything from TCM. And I have 8 VHS. Like Cocteau’s La Belle Et Bette, Gigi, The Searchers, Sabrina, The Hunchback, It’s a wonderful life, Psycho and Mildred Pierce
To Black folks, "classic Hollywood" is stained by Jim Crow. The themes and stories are specific to white America of the past yes, but we're also forced to reconcile with the fact that Black writers actors, and directors were violently excluded. 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Guess Who's coming to Dinner' are both presented endearingly, (and even earned Academy Awards for Black performers) but they also stir up resentment and sadness for the artists and stories that we know we didnt get to see.
Oh please I am Black and know many black people who watch classic movies all the time. "It's A Wonderful Life" "White Christmas" The Wizard of Oz
@@lisah8438 I also watch classic Hollywood movies and That doesn’t negate my point.
I will forever be grateful that my mom introduced me to black and white movies and shows while I was a young child emphasizing their importance. I enjoyed movies by Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Bros, Laurel & Hardy, and shows like the Twilight Zone, Little Rascals, and the Three Stooges. In high school I really devoured as many classic movies as I could. One that really stood out to me and made me so uncomfortable was "Niagra". To this day I love how it make me feel uncomfortable. I purposefully go out of my way to find older movies to watch, especially when I really want to "feel" something.
I think it might be part of my Asperger's hyper focus, but I really love classics of anything. Classic books, classic music, classic architecture, classic monuments, classic stories, and classic movies. But, I can't really pin-point where it comes from. My Dad has shared some of his favourite music with me, and he likes books and movies, but nowhere near as much as I do. My Mom doesn't have the mental energy for hobbies. Growing up, I watched a good deal of classic Danish movies with my family, including some black and white ones. Then when I was a teenagers, I must have watched a thousand top tens here on TH-cam and felt inclined to watch the classic movies mentioned. At university, I joined a film club and had many people to gush about cinema with. I am 26 now and still feel such a connection to the world when I indulge in the classics. They put so much of the world into perspective for me, which probably helps me navigate my disorder 😊
Side note: Danish Netflix has ramped up there actual classics selections with many titles from as early as the 1930s, though these are mainly British, French, and Italian movies, while also having a lot of Danish, Swedish, Spanish Polish, Turkish, Nigerian, and so on, from the past 20 years. I was very glad to discover that ☺
I know this is a year later, but I'm Asperger too and I feel the same as you, I'm 18 and I LOVE ANYTHING CLASSIC TOO, from movies to music, literature, architecture, etc... Even in my family they say I'm kind of old soul, they are surprised by the tremendous degree of culture that I have (thanks to the internet), once my Great Aunt (who is now in Mexico with my Great Uncle, unfortunately she can't walk right now) was surprised about how I knew about classic movie stars like John Wayne, Gary Cooper or Jimmy Stewart (one of my favorites) and even that I knew that Ronald Reagan was an actor (the fact that he was president of the USA really overshadowed his acting career), it also helps that my Great Uncle likes westerns. Whenever I came to their house, I used to watch classic movies on TCM or Fox Classics, I love a lot of older things and it also helped me to disconnect from current reality and even programming, I'm not saying that I don't love a lot of new or modern things, although today's popular music leaves a lot to be desired in my favor. Greetings from Venezuela, I wish I could go to US or Europe or any other part of the world someday, I hope that my International Studies career at the university will allow me those opportunities, apart from the fact that it helps me a lot with languages.
There's some amazing, old b&w movies out there- 1st-gen gangster movie like the Jimmy Cagney era; the 1932 'Scarface', 'Angels With Dirty Faces', 'The Public Enemy', ''The Roaring 20s', 'White Heat'', up to 40s/50s crime/Noir stuff like 'The Big Sleep' 'The Man With The Golden Arm' and Kubrick's 'The Killing', 'Dr Strangelove' 'Lolita; and 'Paths of Glory'. Early Marx Bros are legit some of the funniest movies ever made- 'Duck Soup', 'Horse Feathers', 'Animal Crackers', 'A Day At the Races', 'Night At the Opera'. Westerns like 'High Noon' and 'The Searchers'. The 50s originals of sci-fi classics like 'The Fly' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. And 'Wizard of Oz' isn't all black and white, but it's a 10/10 movie from that era.
There's great movies from every era, but theres something magical about that 20s to 50s era, that few later films can re-capture.
As a classic film enthusiast I loved this video. It is a shame that the old are renegaded as obsolete. When eventually even our own modern movies will be considered as obsolete. You should make more videos like these.
I accidentally became an old movie fanatic
TH-cam mainly but also movie reviewing apps that get me excited and then I hunt for old movies in thrift stores and stuff. There’s just something so powerful about old black and white flicks
I have been doing that too. I also like to request classic movies at my library if they're not available to stream. You'd be surprised how very little classic movies there are in the shelves of different movie genres. My local record store has there own little section for classic movies. I was able to get West Side Story
I'm really glad you made the point that "old" does not automatically equal "classic". I've always found the latter term annoyingly ambiguous and tend to avoid using it, but the idea that a real classic is something that has withstood the test of time and still carries meaningful messages for the present is a good way of looking at things.
Although most movies considered classics have never really appealed to me, it was never about them being black and white or lacking special effects (those are just aesthetics). In most cases I can recall, the plots, themes, and even characters never really expressed experiences that were relevant to my life. Even if the characters are of similar age and come from relatively similar backgrounds, society has changed so much in the decades since that such experiences are no longer the norm. To be fair, most high-octane blockbusters don't reflect my experiences either, but they do it in such an obvious/over-the-top way that it's easier to see them as just great drama in their own right, not necessarily as something that's trying to capture real human experience.
Themes like falling in love, heartbreak, living with poverty, rebelling against societal pressures, etc are universal, no matter what era you're living in. Maybe you've just picked the wrong classic movies?
@@sophia4475 Maybe. Like I said, my exposure is relatively low to begin with, but something to think about.
I'm 22 and I'm from middle east, I started watching classic movies (from my own country, Hollywood, Italy etc) when I was about 15 and have been a fan of classics ever since ❤ I'm sure these movies will always have their fans, I know lots of young people who are obsessed with classic movies, music and looks
I feel lucky that my family introduced me to classic movies. Court Jester is still my favourite film of all time, and all because my great aunt recorded it once in German. From there, I watched every Danny Kaye movie, ten years ago they were all on TH-cam, full length, with no ads. Every year on christmas day, we watch the Rex Harrison version of Doctor Doolittle. It's the little traditions and details that make life joyful.
The vessel with the pestle has the pellet with poison, but the flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true.
The classics need not mean the embarrassingly sexist or racist stuff. There are plenty of overlooked classics that had interesting women and people of color, such as "Stormy Weather" (excluding one inexplicable bit with blackface) or "The Curse of Quon Gwon: When The Far East Mingles With the West."
Your premise doesn’t support your conclusion bc even you acknowledged that Stormy Weather is problematic (too, for its stereotypical portrayal of AA people as happy slum dwellers). Yet the performances are beautiful and it has entertainment and historical value.
Who cares?
Yeah... And there's a LOT of surprises when you go back pre-Hays' code. A lot of those films were a lot more racy and unconventional than people think.
And really, a lot you have to think of in terms of their era. The declaration, "I'm a MAN!" and the accepting, smiling reply, "Well, nobody's perfect," in *Some Like it Hot* would be fairly tame today... but in the time it was made a man could be arrested for being in a gay relationship. They were pushing the envelope.
Lillies of the Field is a nice little movie about a man who ends up being boondoggled into helping a bunch of German nuns build a chapel when he stops for water on a drive through New Mexico. But consider the context of the time and you realize that Sidney Poitier is a man of color in a leading role of a mixed-race cast, and his character is just as human as anyone else... and that this is 1963 in the midst of the Civil Right movement.
But, is it a classic if it is unknown to the large public? is it not a movie with the potential to become one as more people watch it? Or a movie that should be one?
One idea that has always bothered me is the notion that something isn't "real" if it is not popular. That is a message the mass media has hammered into our heads, and it's just not true. We all didn't grow up having identical experiences, and if anything that was even more true in the past. But we have been conditioned to think that if "nobody" saw something happen, then it didn't happen. I am an outspoken proponent of encouraging all people to speak of their experiences, no matter how inconsequential, as important to them personally, and I think this applies especially to movies and television. There have been many "forgettable" entertainments I've seen that I have found UNforgettable. Maybe it's a form of cherry-picking, but I think that if something happens, it happens, and it is just as significant as any other occurrence.
my cousin loves classic movies and old hollywood and she's about 15 years older than me and would babysit me and we watched so many old movies together. classics are kinda comfort movies to me, they are often so magical and have such a theatrical flair that it takes you out of the real world for a bit. i'm also a cinephile and love the history of old movies and seeing how they inspired current filmmakers, i know they're not for everyone but i definitely will be showing my future kids or nieces or nephews so many classic films.
I absolutely fell deeply in love with classic cinema a few years back. Doing so made me more aware of filmmaking itself and also the beauty of writing. I have a huge dvd collection because I became obsessed with wanting to ensure I never missed a chance to see them. I’m 27 and I love more classic films and silent films than modern movies. My favorite movie was in fact one I randomly stumbled on just four years ago and it’s the black and white classic The Apartment.
Everything you showed is a movie I love so thank you so much for talking about this, I want more awareness and love brought to classic cinema.
Any recommendations?? I’m a fellow classic film lover, but have only seen the popular/culturally significant ones. I’d like to broaden my horizons.
@@booksboundnoveljourneys1122 I think it depends on the genre you like the most. There are a few I can recommend though; a Bette Davis called film Of Human Bondage; I think aside from her performance in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane that is one of her best, Two for the Road with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney is really good too, there’s a lot out there and I say take a chance if the plot interests you watch it, you never know what you may find. 😉
@@brittanylin1994 thanks!!
Loved the video….i definitely agree that history always has ugly aspects and movies portray those past ideals as well
But we can analyze them and look at the brilliant side of the cinema at the same time
I think the discussion also needs to talk about one more thing: classics from which country?
As a Chinese immigrant who loves watching movies, I'm constantly asked why I don't watch the classics, but I DO watch the classics... from Asia. Chinese classics are my classics, not the West. So when we say we should watch the classics, is it Americentric?
Classic is usually that the movie made a big impact around the world
@@mewesquirrel6720 many Asian classics have impacted world cinema. Japanese cinema has continuously influenced Western directors. And Chinese cinema has influenced many Southeast Asian and East Asian media. Add onto the fact that Chinese are the largest ethnic group in the world means Chinese cinema is quite influential.
@@conho4898 You didn't even name any....
Only if you hear "Classic Hollywood" or "Hollywood." There are a lot of directors from elsewhere in the world that have also had a huge impact on cinema even if no one but Quentin Tarantino has ever heard of them in the west. Akira Kurosawa (though not Chinese, obviously) is partially responsible for a lot of the 70s-80s Westerns, Adventures, etc. He, in turn, frequently ripped off Shakespeare.
@@mewesquirrel6720 Honestly, I had never heard of Citizen Kane. Half of the American classics probably did not impact the world. Psycho and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly probably had more of an impact if that is how we measure it.
I consider Sissi a classic, but I doubt many Americans watched that movie.
Watching classic films (mostly pre-Code) is about all I do! I would much rather do that than watch football, which seems to be all anyone’s into. I want to make my way through Bergman, Renoir, Visconti, Kurosawa, and all of that!
Watched a classic last night. The Shop Around the Corner. Basically every romcom came for those types of films
ahhh brilliant for the season
A fantastic movie. I hope you enjoyed it.
@@jacobdearancibia9436 I did very much. It’s a short sweet romcom that was actually pretty funny. The characters were beyond loveable. But Jimmy Stewart ofc took the cake. His way of speaking is just so nice to listen to.
You've got mail was based on the shop around the corner. Both are comfort food to me.
@@mcwjes I figured. I said the exact same thing to my friends after the film ended
I have always been drawn to movies and tv from the 50s. I think it is the emotions that they bring up in me. It’s slower and calmer.
I'm 15 and God I'm crazy about classic old movies of Hollywood and Bollywood I'd love to get more recommendations. Classic old cinema is something I love very much it's all I am crazy about.
You have so many good points to watch these old classics. And I like to add one too: when you want in your own stories that have a historical setting characters who behave and talk realistically, watch movies from for example the 1940 that take place in the 1940s. Even when the readers had not watch those movies, they will notice that the language spoken does fit.
Sadly, this is the best AND most important "Take" you have ever done. NB "Arsenic and Old Lace "(1944) is the best comedy ever made.
Having grown up with only 3 TV channels, the odds of my watching older movies was much better. The local stations would play older films over and over since their budgets were so low. The majority of films made are pretty much forgotten. Even this video of yours lists about 25 movies. As for color: Henry V was filmed in color and Olivier's next movie, Hamlet ,was shot in b/w, The critics were convinced that Hamlet was a more introspective work so it needed the b/w treatment. Olivier said it was because he had a big argument with Technicolor so he had no choice. Most of the big musicals in the 40s were in great color and the film noirs were all in b/w. This generation has a lot of choice but they will always pick the most recent movie out. Back in the 40s and 50s, most movie houses had double features, but they only stayed around for 1 or 2 weeks. You should also add that the story lines were much quicker, the actors spoke more rapidly, the action was less intense but made more sense to the story. Try watching Double Indemnity and not getting hooked after 10 minutes. Try watching Born Yesterday and wondering if it's a comedy.
I agree that people need to go back to classics in all artistic mediums, but the reasoning behind it is usually BS. "Oh, people are only used to the same thing over and over." "New technology is to blame." With new tools, come new audiences and new approaches to a genre, and the more people like something, the more executives will pump out more of that same thing to bring in audiences. Guess what? People did that in the 1940s and 1950s, too. A book sparks imagination in a way a play never will, just like a play to a black and white film. Just consume art that's useful & beautiful. It's really that simple. Making this generational is just splitting hairs.
Then there come the screwy copyright laws.. It’s far easier for companies not to rerelease great black and white films, partly due to their current status as old fashioned minnows and partly due to complex music rights issues.
I just share this comment on another channel about films & decided to post it again here since I mention The Take in it along with two movies The Take has covered in videos before. Warning, it's a long one so apologies in advance:
I wanted to see Love Actually until I accidentally learned it had bad relationships & behavior along with good. So I decided against seeing it... at first. But watching your video after also watching Why We Need Classic Movies (And How To Save Them) by youtube channel The Take, a channel which also focuses on movie content - you've changed my mind because both helped me realize that just because a movie has something very unhealthy or unhealthy or alarming doesn't mean I shouldn't see it or that I can't like it. As long as viewers recognize what behavior is bad in the movie, why it's bad or wrong in any way then we should use movies to vicariously explore things of our nature in a wide scope because in all honesty how many people experience in real life what they see in most movies? I also realized it's better to acknowledge something that's uncomfortable than ignore or dismiss it (such as the treatment of black people by society as portrayed in film today or back then like in Gone with the Wind or The Help for examples among many or Promising Young Woman on how women are victimized by men and other women) by not seeing a film that has something that is no longer decent in some way and that way people can grow & become more open-minded by experiencing someone else's life through the tv screen. Any film that affects us emotionally in a good or bad way has the potential to help us grow as human beings connecting to the people we see on the screen. Ignoring it by not seeing such films is almost as bad as saying 'racism doesn't exist today' and whether or not someone has seen or like such films doesn't mean they agree with anything bad in them or guilty of it themselves in any way. At best that's one way people can acknowledge the past & even current mistreatment based on things like race, gender etc. I also realize it's not bad for kids/teens to watch certain films I'm uncomfortable with them seeing to a degree as long as they are old enough to understand my explanation of why certain things in the movies were 'bad' rather than romantic & not something to use as an example on how they should behave or treat anyone.
I think I need to end this here as it's too long at even half the length. Thanks for this great video. I'm going to watch Love Actually after all. Happy Holidays & Happy New Year to everyone and a special thank you to two of my favorite youtube channels: 'Cinema Therapy' & 'The Take', I highly recommend subscribing to both channels and watching their content if you like watching movies
🎄🎇🎉
I love this video! I’ve had a lot of fun watching old movies and learning about ✨cinema✨ and what I DO love about movies today is the potential of accessibility. At what other point could I own both the Red Headed Woman, 12 Angry Men AND The Country Bears? I want more people to have that kind of experience!
B&W movies feel like home to me. They provide me with a feeling of comfort that I just can’t explain.
Classic films are essential at this time of year!
I just rewatched The Apartment and next...Some Like It Hot.
I love older films from the 30s to the late 60s because they seemed like more realistic situations. Of course some of them have strange hijinks but it’s one of those “why not?” Kinds of things. Some of my favorite films are frank capra directed films. ‘Meet John Doe’ made a huge impact on me when I first watched it when I was 14. I’ve started looking up older films and writing down which ones I liked so I can hopefully find them on DVD.
There should be an "outdated classics" category for classic movies that didn't age well with the times because we keep assuming that classic =/= timeless when that's not the case because of the obvious stereotypes of marginalized groups and societal standards/pop culture references at the time.
Agreed. And there should also be classics beyond the 40's and 50's. If something from 2000 were to keep up until 2050, that should be considered classic as well.
Everything is made for its time period, so being “outdated” doesn’t make much sense. Even the movies you deem not outdated will one day be outdated for one reason or another. Societies change, nothing wrong with that. We can’t expect all media to remain “timeless”. Loom at it more as a historian and you will enjoy it a lot more.
@@mastersnet18 People have this obsession with "timelessness" in their movies and shows so they don't age poorly as the years go by, whether it's pop culture references or outdated societal standards.
@@raphaelmarquez9650 I’m not sure why though. I don’t understand why everything has to fit in with the time and place a person lives in and it’s social mores, norms, ethics, etc. I personally find it strange.
@@mastersnet18 Because pop culture references to whatever time period the film was made at that time are a common complaint in some movies due to how they negatively age the film's quality as future generations won't understand the reference.
Thank you for this video. I just finished watching Asphalt Jungle, great noir crime/heist movie. Classics NEED to be kept alive!
Yoh but we need Black classics as well
There are many! One of my favorite films is the 1950s adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Spectacular performances from Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier, some of the biggest Black actors of their time. I could go on-and maybe I will, because I do agree that this video doesn’t address Black/POC American or Global South classic film at all
One day we will hopefully find those missing scenes from Oscar Michaoux's films were the Kkk are being beaten up good
I'm a Millennial and I love classic movies! I loved TCM's Reframed programming and I think that the films people are afraid will be "cancelled" will never be cancelled because as long as people can see them and buy them, they won't be cancelled. It seems to be a privileged projection because those with privilege do not want to see Gone With The Wind in an anti-racist context, because they fear confronting their own implicit biases. We can see these films, recognize the realities of historical trauma in present day from plantation slavery to carceral slavery, notice the beautiful cinematography, and celebrate the excellent performances in that film. And that isn't the only film that can be seen that way. The fact is, people with privilege often want the comfort of their privilege with the disconnect of their privileges' oppressive impact, which is why the fear of cancel culture is often a cisgender, white, male, Christian, heterosexual, and abled fear.
All this being said, I cannot afford cable, still watch DVDs on a player, still buy DVDs, CDs, and vinyls, and have progressive political views that the reality of the regressive status quo in the United States reacts with projective fear towards. If we don't look at our own history honestly, which classic films do allow us to do too, then we continue creating negative impacts and repeating history.
I wasn't introduced to classic cinema until I started studying film in college. I don't even know how on earth I was pre-disposed to love films like "It's a Wonderful" life when the only "old" movie I grew up watching was "The Wizard of Oz." My parents just didn't prioritize entertainment in the house I grew up in.
Years after I started buying myself films like "The Quiet Man" or "A Patch of Blue," my grandmother started asking me what I thoughts about those kinds of films, and I was just so shocked that all this time she was like this living library of old Hollywood classics. I was so happy to have this new link to her, while also really upset with her for not raising my mother on these films haha.
Anyways, this is handily my favorite video from you guys. Excellent work.
The first real classic movie I watched was 'Singin' in the Rain', when I was twelve or thirteen, and my sister and I became obsessed. It was funny, entertaining, the dancing was amazing, and we annoyingly kept quoting the over-the-top dialogue. It was such a feel good movie. I admit I don't avidly watch classics, but I do love them when I do, and I'm trying to watch them more often.
The one thing that I dislike about classic movies, though, is that often the sound is very high-pitched and loud, I guess because of the way that sound was captured and edited in those days. One time I tried watching 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' on a plane, and noise-cancelling headphones would've come in real handy, because of how much I had to pump up the volume to be able to hear over the engine, I don't know if that can cause permanent hearing damage, but it sure felt like it.
I never knew "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore" was from an older film. I think I heard it in a cartoon, I can't really remember..
In Indian Cinema, Satyajit Ray’s Films in Black and White or for that matter, the Bengali auteurs made their best movies in Black and White.
I’m checking out movies from all decades! There’s a magic about the classics that doesn’t have the same feel today! There are gems in the modern era of course, but the classics have gems too!!
Intelligent dialogue, superb acting, distinctive camerawork, why should these be missed out on? There are so many good ones to be seen!
It’s all there, and the classics need the recognition they so rightfully deserve!
In the 20th Century, every form of mass media has been in conflict with each other. Yet, cinema has prevailed. It’s not a question of death, but renaissance and adaptability.
Thank you for this 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I used to be less attracted to some of the classics, but boy, once I got over those barriers a whole new world opened up for me, specially with black & white, which takes everything to a whole new level (The Apartment, Sunset Blvd, Some like it hot, Roman holiday, etc)
If you're near London and want to get into classic cinema, check out the BFI, the ICA, the Prince Charles Cinema near Liecester Square, and the Cinema Museum in Kennington - all have regular screenings of films from across the eras.
I love old movies. I noticed quite a few are on HBO Max.
It’s a low key goldmine for classics
That's thanks to the fact they are connected to TCM who has an arrangement with criterion collection who is the leaders in remastering older movies.
@@stephennootens916 Oh cool. I didn't know that.
I feel this so hard.
Growing up in India, I was a typical kid who'd be glued to Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon, but after a certain hour (9 or 10 pm) Cartoon Network would stop programming and it would switch to MGM and the few times I happened to catch what was on TV, it was usually black and white movies that I was too sleepy to enjoy.
So I naturally grew up with the whole "B&W is for old people thing" and it wasn't until I came across Seven Samurai in a DVD rental store and watched it that my mind was blown and a love of the craft of filmmaking was born.
Wonderful u opened your self to classic films, they are magical
A bit like how I grew up. Cartoons and Dutch voices was for kids. Life action and subtitled was for teens and older.
I’m just happy my parents were old school and showed me black and white movies.
Having Boomer/gen X parents def help having old school media literacy
Black and white Egyptian movies are my guilty pleasure
When someone says they hate watching old/black and white films, I take serious offense. It shows a tremendous amount of ignorance in their thinking. I think it’s important for people to be exposed to classic films early. I was exposed to classic cinema because my father taught a classic film course. Before showing the VHS tapes at school, he would first watch them at home, allowing me to see them. To be perfectly honest, I’ve probably seen more black and white movies than color movies. I’ve also shown my niece and nephew various classic films. Even though they’re only ten, they don’t find such cinema odd or jarring, but many adults do. Heck, some people think movies from 2005 are old. Don’t these people realize that in twenty years, the films they like now will be considered old? Will they then suddenly turn their backs on them? The trivialities of time don’t determine the merit of a work of art.
@Nang Lei What a stupid remark, seriously! Not every old/BnW movie was filled with stereotypes, sexism and racism. Many of them had good story and character writing that don’t rely on previously mentioned issues. Way to stereotype all movies.
Also, not all BnW movies are white/American. Many non-white countries/America(e.g. Japan) had prominent movie industries, did they automatically portray stereotypes? Or movies from countries lie, France and Britain had movies with themes like homophobia and explored women and their stories in a modern/less sexist way. Do these films need to be ignored simply because they’re old/BnW??
I'm 21 years old and I adore classic movies. So great, many great actors, stories, and directors.
Thank you for this great video on an important topic! This has affected me in two very direct ways:
1) My mom is in her 80s and get out much. A year or so ago I had the idea to get her a streaming service that had classic movies from when she was young. I was shocked by how difficult it was to find any service that had any. I even consulted former students of mine (I teach high school) who are now film or theater students, and I ended up giving up on the idea.
2) As a long-time history teacher I don't show a lot of movies, but sometimes they can be useful to help students understand the past. As recently as the early 2010s I could show films (not even classics, good low budget TV films, too) made in the '60s or '70s and the students would find them powerful. The 1979 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a great example of this. At some point, though, I realized I couldn't use films from those eras any more because most students just couldn't get past the low production values, the physicality of the actors, and the lengthy dialogue.
i love seeing the special screenings of old classics at the movies, it's the best way to them
I discovered Classic movies in my twenties and fell in love. I've been watching less and less classics because of less accessibility. My main source was TCM. I loved the before and after commentary to contextualize the movie, along with the sentimental attachment from the celebrity guest. It was perfect to introduce the relevance of the film! But, now that I've 'cut the cord' because of exorbitant prices it's difficult to find classic movies. TCM is now relegated to a sports package by my cable company and I'm even less likely to pay extra for highway robbery. It's clear that I miss TCM. I wish they could manage to end their dependency on the cable companies and offer a full-online service.
I grew up watching old movies...love them so much! AMC and TCM were my favorite channels.
TCM is a great channel/network to watch, study or "stumble upon" these classic films. I'm surprised they didn't elaborate more on that, but maybe it's because a majority of people turn to more streaming platforms than television cable options these days. Also, I'd like to see Netflix and other streaming services jump on this a little more if viewers are interested.
Agreed, why did they not mention TCM? It's literally a classic movie network
Your comment made me think you might be interested that TCM has partnered with HBO Max.
As a teenager I could never have imagined myself watching a black and white movie, but your tastes change and evolve over time. Once you get into your twenties you begin watching a wider variety of films and watching them with a more open mind. I think classic movies will be fine, they are classics for a reason and that whole Hollywood golden era is the most romanticized period of film history. Perhaps it will have the same fate as classical music, therefor still maintaining a very passionate and appreciative fan base, even if it means it is more of a niche thing.