Welcome to FTS’ brand new feature Word Around the Campfire where all of the FTS’ contributors take turns answering the question or topic of the month. We start off our feature by discussing which movies made us fall in love with film.

Casablanca. It was a random day and I thought, ya know, I’ve never seen Casablanca before and my grandmother had a DVD copy laying around. From beginning to end my jaw was on the floor at how incredible this movie was and how could I have ever lived without seeing this movie before. It’s perfect. It’s the definition of a masterpiece. I was fortunate enough to catch a screening of it in New Orleans and I bawled my eyes out watching this movie. It was so beautiful and looked so amazing on the big screen. But from my first viewing of Casablanca, I knew film would be a love I’d forever cherish.

It might seem cliche to say that the movie that made me fall in love with film is also my number one favorite movie of all time forever and always, but cliche or not, it is the truth: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a turning point for me as a film fan and started me on a path of cinematic inquiry and discovery. I grew up on movies and pop culture in general, but this was the first film that I remember thinking about as a complex work of art, a philosophical puzzle, and a genre-bending source of entertainment all in one experience; it was overwhelming at first, and I took note of that. It warranted numerous viewings to understand it and fully appreciate it, and even when I watch it now, I notice something new or respond to some part of it in a way that I hadn’t before. It made me go through mental and emotional gymnastics and I guess that’s when I first realized how truly important film was, and how interesting and innovative it could be.

Considering I’m not what would traditionally be referred to as a “horror fan,” it may be surprising to learn that the film I’d most associate with the transition I made from movie-watcher to film-fan is usually described as being within the horror genre, and that film is Ridley Scott’s Alien. I saw it for the first time when I was 20, very late in life for this state of being to occur, I think you’ll agree, but considering how few films I can remember seeing in that very brief period of life during which most people have their childhoods, I think it’s understandable that it took me a while to find what I enjoyed in life.

The first time I watched Alien, I didn’t really even see it. I was in the room within which it was playing on a far-too-small television, but I was doing other things and not paying a great deal of attention. I knew about the key elements beforehand – the eggs, the dinner scene, which character turns out to be an evil robot etc. – and like many other films I “watched” at that time in my life, I stuck it on just to cross it off some arbitrary list, to say I’d seen it without absorbing anything of the experience. However, something stuck with me, and a few days later I decided this needed, nay, deserved, my full attention, so a second viewing occurred, with no distractions, and it remains amongst my top 10 films to this day.

Alien contains a lot of aspects in movies that I’ve come to love across the whole spectrum of film – unique, stunning creature designs, practical effects, interesting character actors, and a particular admiration for plots that see small groups of people attempting to survive extreme conditions within limited environments, and getting picked off one by one – see the likes of Sunshine, Deep Blue Sea, The Poseidon Adventure, Armageddon and The Core for other examples of movies I love perhaps a little more than I should. As a film it never really scared me – if it had I doubt I’d have watched it again (thus being why I’ve never seen beyond the first Paranormal Activity, and will never watch it again) – but something about Alien made me sit up and notice that films could be thrilling, exciting, gripping and unbelievably tense, with characters you cared about, even after they’d been decapitated and were leaking milk everywhere.

It’s a tough choice between two movies here because there’s one that made me fall in love with Bollywood and another one that made me fall in love with Hollywood. However, I will choose the first one, since I would say that my love for Bollywood was the base for any appreciation of film that has grown in me since then. So Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham it is. Having trouble with the pronunciation? Well, there is always the abbreviation K3G if you’re into movie titles that sound like atomic bombs. Anyhow, K3G was the movie that made about a fifth of the German population fall in love with Indian films – actually, the Hindi language, very dramatic and over-the-top portion of them. I happened to be 11 at that time and one of my friends talked me into watching her new DVD. After that, my whole life changed. For about three years, I spent most of my free time learning Hindi, dancing to Indian pop music, trying to dye my hair a natural Indian shade of dark brown and tracing down most of Shah Rukh Khan’s filmography. What I got out of this early teenage obsession is a huge pile of kitschy movies that will instantly make me feel nostalgically fuzzy inside, an insight to one of the biggest film industries of the world (I later found out that there are different Indian films than the ‘Bollywood’ ones and that my more adult self enjoys them a lot) and an ongoing position as a freelance writer for the biggest North European magazine on Indian cinema. Oh, and the love for films in general. You see, my lone love for Bollywood eventually caused me to open a blog on these films… that eventually transformed itself into a blog on all sorts of films. And that’s what brought me here, writing these sentences right now for French Toast Sunday.

The Breakfast Club – This was the first non-children’s movie that I was ever obsessed with, watching it endlessly and eventually being able to quote it by heart. It was my first ever favorite movie. I’ve always loved everything about it starting with the humor and characters. It finds the balance of laugh out loud comedy and effecting drama, a perfect coming of age movie to capture the teen experience. I still adore it, but it was the movie that made me really love it for more than just the passing entertainment value.

Most of my early interest in film centered on weird and depraved cinema bit it’s safe to say that American Beauty was the first movie I watched that made me interested in the art form. American Beauty affected my in a terribly wonderful way; it was not only an intensely emotional experience for me but it also made me aware of how powerful a movie could actually be. I’ve always enjoyed movies as entertainment but after seeing American Beauty I was much more interested in finding movies that affected me on other emotional platforms. The movie is, for lack of a better word, beautiful and still makes me cry like a baby and laugh like a fool. It remains my favorite movie of all time (depending on the day you ask me.)

Gotta go with Jurassic Park! It was the first movie I saw in a theater and I’ve loved it ever since. The fantasy and adventure in the film and its story ensured I would remain addicted to movies for the rest of my life.

When I first watched Pulp Fiction, I hadn’t seen Reservoir Dogs or Jackie Brown so it was my first Quentin Tarantino film. I instantly appreciated how over-the-top the characters and dialogue were and the film’s strange situations. The fact that the story could be told out of order, and not only make sense, but also feel somehow even more engaging was impressive to me. I could feel that the time and effort that went into the screenplay was something special. It just felt like everyone making the film enjoyed watching and making movies. I wanted to seek out more films that had that level of care involved after seeing Pulp Fiction.

My love affair with film started as such a young age that it’s really hard to pinpoint when it began, it’s been apart of me for as long as I can remember. But if I had to pinpoint the movie that started me down this path it would be The Goonies. I grew up in the inner city of Baltimore, and to be honest I didn’t have a horrible childhood, but because of where I lived there were things that I really couldn’t do for safety reasons. I couldn’t go outside without adult supervision much less ride a bike further than my parent’s eyesight. The first time I saw The Goonies what jumped out almost instantly to me was the escapism that film provides, here I am watching a movie where a group of kids, not so different from myself, are going on this epic adventure without a parent in sight. In it’s own strange way, The Goonies represented a sense of freedom that at the time I didn’t possess. Granted I was only 5 years old, but I still wanted that freedom. The Goonies allowed me to vicariously live through its characters and go on the adventures that reality didn’t provide. I can imagine that most movie bloggers would answer this question with a movie from some prolific auteur, but for me, The Goonies is definitely the cause of my love of cinema.

When I saw the topic for this month’s post, I have to admit nothing jumps right out at me. I mean, is there really a single film that made me love watching movies? It’s tough, for me at least, to follow the chain back that far. And then I thought about a film I talk about on the Podcast with significant regularity. A Stanley Kubrick film called Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I saw it for the first time years and years ago and I liked it a lot but I’m not sure as a young teen I fully appreciated it. I have since rewatched it dozens, maybe hundreds, of times. It’s a film that is pretty close to perfectly put together.

The blending of sarcasm, suspense, dark comedy, and the tongue in cheek nature of the whole thing can be tough to pull off without seeming silly or over-the-top but Kubrick pulls it off here. Every line of dialogue is perfectly written and expertly delivered. The casting was phenomenal as well, particularly the casting of Peter Sellers as multiple characters. His skill as an actor is evident and he’s able to breathe life into three distinct characters in the same film.

I can’t definitely say that this is the film that got me to love films but I can say that after watching this two or three times I gained a deeper understanding and respect for what goes into a film and what a film can be. It was an awakening of sorts, that film can be appreciated for more than just it’s entertainment value. Watching Dr. Strangelove makes you gain a deep appreciation for the art of film-making and I think in many ways it has changed the way I watch a movie and perhaps more importantly, it made films more meaningful for me.