How I prefer Star Wars and Star Trek to Pasolini and Godard!! Part 1!

Although the aim of our site is to stimulate rich and cerebral film debate, so one can learn about great films in history and great directors it will never be a site for snobs. Although I'm a massive proponent of the "auteur" theory -the primal role of film directors in shaping films and a concomitant worldview, I will also be harsh on certain "canonic" thought. I don't find Jean Luc Godard that great and I find many of his films boring. I think Louis Malle is far better and far more human. I think Pasolini was a creep - after all he was killed after trying to lure young boys. Now that's just creepy! And I'll take Star Trek any day over watching Godard or most Fellini films. I find 1940s Hollywood films also far more interesting and pleasurable and dare I say it artistically worthy!!

I've watched thousands of films and I'll never disparage anyone personally, but I've met film buffs and even some film critics that have amazed me with their lack of broad film knowledge. They'll name Godard, perhaps namedrop Fellini or if they’re a little more articulate on films maybe mention the great Clouzot (director of the great Wages of Fear). Actually, that's very rare but does occur. But the key thing is they namedrop directors and often watch certain films and yet ignore thousands of others. And they demean great cinema and great television....because they consider it beneath them!!

We at "Cineaste International" will never do that! We love the artistic and cerebral. We love arthouse and independent film...but we love it because it's a great film...not because it's popular and it's the prevailing wisdom. The first film I ever saw was the "Empire Strikes Back" in 1979. I was only a little child -and I was enraptured and entranced. It was with a primary school group - I think I was 8 years old. It was mesmerising to see such action and adventure on such a gigantic screen. That final battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader which is considered as one of the finest screen battles in movie history fulfilled a great desire for more film!

For a few years I concentrated on my lifelong love of football (soccer) and a passion for world history. I played every day for hours and still do! And since becoming galvanized again for film in my university years, I have seen easily a couple of thousand films. Far more than the vast majority of people! And yet, my love for film is informed by a passion for a sense of storytelling as well as romance and passion. And just as with my love for history I don't settle for the conventional "snobbish" conventions on film. I maintain firmly that Truffaut's "400 blows" is just an average film! Guiseppe Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso" is far more compassionate, entertaining and sympathetic. And if you've never seen William Wyler's 1946 masterpiece "The Best Years of our Lives" do yourself a life-affirming favour and check it out! It's brilliant and moving and artistically daring!

And Lena and I any day would rather watch Star Trek than any of Pasolini's movies. I think his 1975 "Salo" is one of the most repugnant movies ever made. I only stayed because it's considered to be a masterwork. But I find it depraved and as a major history student not very enlightening on totalitarianism either. And I've walked out of the first "Saw" movie!..... end of part 1.....