Introduce Yourself

[rotacirav]

I seem to be spending enough time for a long enough time here to warrant an introduction. I’m rotacirav, soon 23 years old, and from Austria, where I’m currently taking a mental-health-induced break from college. I used to want to become an academic, but at the current stage this seems to me both unattainable and undesirable. Now I don’t want anything.

For many years I wasn’t particularly interested in films, but since this summer I have spent a lot of what you might call my free time getting to know the canon, beginning with The Night of the Hunter (still my favourite film I have seen since then). This site seems to me very useful to keep track of this exploration, and refreshingly unzeitgemäß; I like that it is more minimalist and less of a social media platform than the other rating website, and there are very interesting reviewers to be found here. I use the full 0-100 rating scale — might as well go all in if you’re going to quantify aesthetic experience at all.

I know too little about the technical aspects of filmmaking, but I know a little about (especially German) literature, philosophy (my college subjects) and music, so film’s relationship to these topics naturally interests me. I’m a little embarrassed by my current criticker favourites, these will probably change as I get more into directors like Bergman and Tarkovsky. I want more films to feature strange inscriptions running on the walls and random weird musical numbers. I’m generally against pop culture but aware of the impossibility of this stance today. In short, I do this for myself but of course my secret hope is that others might find my reviews interesting.

[SinnerMa]

I think relaxed rather than unzeitgemäß is better (as far as I can see unzeitgemäß implies old fashioned/out of date). Aside from that, yep I prefer this site to IMDB. Letterbox'd IMHO is similar to here. Note not a film aficionado myself, some of the reviews here put me to shame, they are so perceptive.

"I’m generally against pop culture but aware of the impossibility of this stance today." well it's possible but it's damn hard, best wishes.

[rotacirav]

I think relaxed rather than unzeitgemäß is better (as far as I can see unzeitgemäß implies old fashioned/out of date).

The literal meaning is “not fitted to time”, so in general usage itʼs pejorative but it doesnʼt have to be (the most notable exception being Nietzscheʼs Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen). Here you might translate it as “unfashionable in a good way”.

IMDB is to me primarily that: a database, with the user reviews an afterthought. I actually meant Letterboxd, which is Twitter compared to this place: most people there either make the same kinds of one-liners about every single film in hopes to get likes, or describe not the film but how the film made them feel. Naturally there are good reviews somewhere in the heap, but you have to dig for them, and thereʼs no character limit forcing you to be concise. (These are the same reasons Iʼm not on Goodreads, minus the one-liners.)

[SinnerMa]

Ah, yes in that case unzeitgemäß is quite fitting.

It may be that I have ignored the simplistic reviews on Letterbox'd, I can't recall, and also I have not looked at any greatly popular fare there (mea culpa), however in relation to Japanese films - where I have spent most of my views there - I have found a number of lengthy and seemingly erudite reviews. and that has swayed my thinking of Letterbox'd as being somewhat similar to Criticker.

However, I must admit I didn't consider my very narrow viewpoint and so may be wrong.