What Kind of Film Buff Are You? by Sam Van Hallgren

The Moviegoer

Barely a week goes by that the Moviegoer has not made a pilgrimage to the local multiplex, perhaps several. This category of movie buff looks forward to watching the latest, checking out at least one new release a week and devoting section of their blogs to discussing new trailers, highlighting the latest film buzz and predicting award winners. If they can afford the time and money, they’ll go to a film festival and watch at least 20 new films, writing about as many as possible. If you want to talk about the latest hit or dud, this is the movie buff to find.

The Classicist

On the other end of the spectrum, The Classicist usually prefers his or her films in black and white, possibly 4:3 aspect ratio and has seen more films starring Bergman, Bogart, Davis and Grant than Hathaway, Pitt, Downey Jr. and Portman.  While these buffs usually hang out in the 40’s and 50’s, they often explore the decades surrounding them. These buffs prefer to dig into the treasure trove of classics that have withstood the test of time than brave the multiplex.

The Cultist

This rebellious movie buff loves exploring the more marginalized areas of cinema: sci-fi, the b-movie, horror and more. These movie lovers both love to praise the bizarre, bad and broken films for their discovered charm as well as love to hate on atrocities against humanity. A lot of cult classics and b-movies comprise their list of favorites. If a film has the title featuring the word blood, demon, world, or a random scientific terms, this is the moviegoer that has probably seen or heard of it.

The Cinephile

Exploring the other margin of cinema, The Cinephile is a globetrotter who explores cinematic gems from directors you probably haven’t heard of from countries you didn’t even know made movies. The Cinephile singing the praises of 3 hour trials in patience and films that strain the boundaries of what film is.

The Curator

Lists, bodies of works, categories. The Curator is often a completionist, looking to either watch all the films of a particular director, or check off all the films on a list. They are known for focusing in specific genres or being experts on certain directors. They are also known for making and sharing their own lists. These lists can range from genre, year, country or any other cohesive label for categorizing films.

The Academic

Three viewings or more later, The Academic dives into exploring a film or set of films in depth, researching theoretical topics and reading as much writings on the film as they can find. These movie viewers, while exploring, often settle down into specific areas and then hone down on very specific films or topics, devoting many hours to watching and rewatching particular films, digging deep into the details in the hope of discovering and contributing worthwhile, well-supported and deep insights about a particular film or film related subject.

NOTE: The above are only excerpts.  For the full article, go to Cinema Sights.

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