My "Type"

I made a list of my 200 favorite movies a couple of weeks ago. It's something that will constantly be evolving, so I imagine I'll write about this particular list quite a few times on here. This time around, I've found myself in the mood to talk about the "type" or genre of film that I tend to like, because I don't know that it can be wholly classified.

I enjoy classic films and foreign films, but I tend to dislike using those terms as genre labels, as a "classic" films or a "foreign" film could be a drama, a comedy, a romance, an action film, a Western or any other genre. I like coming-of-age films, screwball comedies from the 1930s and '40s, film noir and musicals, but none of those four genres are really the dominant type on the list. Sure there are a few from each genre on there, but I would say that a lot of the films - perhaps the majority - are somewhat unclassifiable by the traditional genre standards. These films that dominate my list tend to cross genres and focus on relationships. I guess because that's what I've always found to be most compelling when I'm watching movies. I think all of the movies in my top 10 (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Philadelphia Story, The Royal Tenenbaums, Annie Hall, Amelie, Harold and Maude, Reality Bites, Stranger Than Fiction, Once and I'm Not There) could easily fall into that "type," although The Philadelphia Story could fall into the screwball comedy genre and Once is often referred to as a musical. I suppose Harold and Maude and Reality Bites could also fall into the coming-of-age genre, but really, at their core, they are just films about relationships. I suppose I should point out that when I use the word "relationships," I'm not just referring to ones of a romantic or sexual nature - I also include friendships, family relationships and human beings relating to each other in general through that one word.

In looking back over the entire list of 200, I suppose there's only a handful of films that would be stretching it as far as saying they fall into my "type." At their cores, I suppose most films are about relationships, but I think the ones I've deemed as favorites go a step or two further in delving into both character studies and how human beings relate to each other. Quite obviously, that's what I find most compelling when I take the time to watch a movie.